
Class 
Book. 



■C£7 






I'UKSK.NTKI) liV 



THE MENTAL CAPACITY OF 
THE AMERICAN NEGRO 



BY 

MARIOIST J. MAYO 



Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy, under the Faculty of Philosophy, in Columbia University 



Reprinted from the Archives of Psychology, No. »8. 



NEW YORK CITY 
NOVEMBEK, 1913 



/ 

THE MENTAL CAPACITY OF 

THE AMERICAN NEGRO 




BY 

MARION J. MAYO 



Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy, under the Faculty of Philosophy, in Columbia University 



Reprinted from the Archives of Psychology, No. 28. 



NEW YORK CITY 
NOYEMBEE, 1913 



"3 s 



PRESS OF 

The new era printing coup 
Lancaster, pa 



GttI 

The U', r 

FEB 10 1814 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

C ha pter I 
The Measurement of Racial Mental Differences 1 

Chapter II 
Data and Methods 10 

Chapter III 
Comparative Ages and Time of Attendance IS 

Chapter IV 
Comparative Scholastic Efficiency 26; 

Chapter V 
The Educational Significance of the Data 46" 

Chapter VI 
Conclusion 51 



THE MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 



CHAPTER I 
The Measurement of Racial Mental Differences 

The numerous groups of men that people the earth present to us 
far from a homogeneous picture. Long before the dawn of history 
there was to be found on the several continents a multiplicity of phys- 
ical types, languages, manners, customs, and states of social develop- 
ment. These various differences among men have ever constituted 
an interesting and fruitful field for scientific and speculative enquiry. 

Students of the human species have with great diligence described 
in minuteness of detail the physical characteristics of the various 
races and tribes of men ; and the existence among them of intellectual, 
moral, and temperamental differences is a matter of common observa- 
tion among historians and anthropologists. Institutions, arts, laws, 
beliefs, customs, and other direct manifestations of the mental life 
have presented quite as striking variations among peoples as have 
their physical attributes of form, feature, and color. General esti- 
mates of these mental differences may be found scattered widely 
through the pages of history and science. To treat of the mental 
capacities and traits of men has always been considered within the 
scope of anthropology; while recent developments of psychology have 
so enlarged its province as to make the comparative study of the 
mental activities of different human groups a legitimate field of psy- 
chological enquiry. Numerous attempts have already been made to 
describe and explain the differences and liknesses in the minds and 
characters of the various peoples. 

It has always been regarded as quite obvious that, in point of view 
of mental capacity, some races stood distinctly higher than others. „ 
Civilized man, surrounded by his self-made resources of comfort and 
power, could hardly escape the feeling of superiority when looking 
upon his savage neighbor in squalor and need. It was very natural 
to refer differences in economic status and social development to 
differences in mental ability and to corresponding differences in the 
capacity of peoples for achievement and progress. Civilized man 
has ever regarded uncivilized man as inferior. Among Europeans ~- 
and their descendants in all parts of the globe there has always ex- 
isted a feeling of the superiority of the white race. It is a feeling 

1 



2 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGRO 

"bred in the bone," and so strong that it can hardly be eradicated, v 
The feeling is probably due in a large measure to the leadership 
which the white race has borne in civilization. But it would be 
wrong to suppose that this feeling is peculiar to the white race. A 
sense of superiority is also shared, and in an equal or even greater 
measure, by other races, especially where the influence of some alien 
people has not become predominant, or strikingly forceful, among 
them. Oriental peoples are said to regard Western nations with "a 
contempt in comparison with which our contempt for them is feeble." 
*\ How then, we may well ask, are we to ascertain the relative worth 
of races? What methods of measurement are to be employed in 
determining their comparative mental endowment? It must be said 
that for the most part the estimates that have been hitherto made 
have been based upon observations gained from practical experience 
in dealing with the races. As an example of the use of the observa- 
tion method of comparing the mental worth of races, we quote as 
follows from a recent volume by Professor Eoss: "To forty-three 
men who, as educators, missionaries, and diplomats, have had good 
opportunity to learn the 'feel' of the Chinese mind, I put the ques- 
tion, 'Do you find the intellectual capacity of the yellow race equal 
to that of the white race?' All but five answered 'yes,' and one 
sinologue of varied experience as missionary, university president, 
and legation adviser, left me gasping with the statement, 'Most of us 
who have spent twenty-five years or more out here come to feel that 
the yellow race is- the normal human type, while the white race is a 
'sport.' " x An estimate of this sort is based solely upon observation 
and practical experience, and the reports of different observers are 
likely to show great discrepancies. As Deniker points out : ' ' Each 
traveller, each observer, tends to judge in his own way a given people 
according to the nature of the relations (pacific, hostile, etc.) which 
he has had with it." 2 Hence while such estimates may be admitted 
to have a certain rough validity, they still belong to the domain of 
opinion, and can never have the scientific value that attaches to 
comparisons based upon actual measurements. 

Underlying the whole discussion of comparative mental differ- 
ences there has until recently been the tacit assumption that those 
races most advanced in civilization were superior races. The as- 
sumption of superiority was based upon the degree of attainment in 
the arts and sciences of civilized life. Peoples of culture were 
peoples of superior mental worth. Such an assumption was both 
natural and plausible. vEven bodily form and features came to be 

1 "The Changing Chinese," p. 61. 
2 "The Eaees of Men," p. 121. 



MEASUREMENT OF RACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 3 

regarded as a stamp of racial nobility. The physical traits of civ- 
ilized races thus came to be considered marks of superior racial 
worth; while those of savage peoples were regarded as marks of 
racial inferiority. Purely external characteristics have thus often 
come to be employed as criteria of relative mental capacity and 
worth. 

It is true that the physical differences between the races are so 
striking as almost to obscure their far more fundamental likenesses. 
There are considerable racial variations in weight and stature, in the 
shape and size of the head, in the length, abundance, and texture of 
the hair, in the pigmentation of the skin and eyes, and in the relative 
dimensions of the various parts of the body. White Europeans have 
always regarded their type as ideal — or at least as the most nearly 
perfect human type — and they have not hesitated to consider wide 
departures therefrom as evidence of inferiority. Thus the orthogna- 
thism of the Caucasian has been believed to be an essentially human 
trait, while the prognathism of the Negro has been regarded as giving 
him an animal expression, and as approximating him in type to the 
ape. His long arms and receding forehead were said to be simian 
traits, and have been looked upon as evidences of racial inferiority. 

First of all, then, as an objective standard, differences in physique, 
and especially in physiognomy, have been regarded as sufficient 
ground to infer differences in mental ability, and to justify a classi- 
fication of races as lower and higher. Camper first advanced the 
theory that an increase in the facial angle may be taken as a sign of 
superior intelligence. Figguier says: "A relatively exact judgment 
may be formed from the size of this angle as to the value of a race 
from the intellectual point of view." 3 Brinton may be quoted to the 
same effect regarding the physical criteria of racial mental inequality : 
"We are accustomed familiarly to speak of higher and lower races, 
and we are justified in this even from merely physical considerations. 
These indeed bear intimate relation to mental capacity, and where 
the body presents many points of arrested or retarded development, 
we may be sure that the mind will also. ' ' 4 

An obvious fault of this mode of argument is the assumption of 
an ideal or superior physical type, endowed by nature with a higher 
order of intelligence. In the first place, such a type, if there be one, 
should not be naively assumed, but scientifically determined. It 
would be necessary to know that a certain physical type is charac- 
terized by a distinct measure of mental superiority. It would be 
necessary to establish a definite and fixed correlation between physi- 

3 "Human Bace," p. 506. 
4 "Baces and Peoples," p. 47. 



4 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGBO 

cal and mental traits, before any legitimate inference could proceed 
from physical features to mental estimates. Hence any attempt at 
the arrangement of races in an order of mental ability which is based 
upon mere differences in physical features, without such well-estab- 
lished mental correlations, can give no final results. A more prom- 
ising physical criterion of the mental capacity of races was found 
in the development of craniometry. This, with its measurement of 
skull form and capacity, and of cranial weight, was believed to offer 
a scientific means of determining the order of races in mental ability. 
Especially would this seem to afford evidence quite conclusive of the 
matter when supplemented by cranial anatomy, with favorable or 
unfavorable modifications in the complexity of cerebral structure. 

z Modern science has shown that the brain is the most important 
physical organ in determining the hierarchy of animal forms and 
in establishing the superiority and dignity of man. The human 
brain has indeed attained to an extraordinary development, a fact 
of the highest and most far-reaching significance inlhe life order of 
the world. We assume that the remarkable influence played by con- 
sciousness in the evolution of the human species has been associated 
with, and dependent upon, this organ. Hence it was that as scien-, 
tific methods and interests developed, students turned with expectancy 
and zeal to a study of the human nervous system as a basis for a 
comparison of the mental capacity of the races. The determination 
of the comparative size and form of the skull, and the comparative 
weight and structure of the brain, has constituted one of the most 
interesting and important investigations of modern anthropology. 
The cephalic indices, cranial capacities and brain weights of all races 
were sought with enthusiasm, with the result that racial differences 
were found to be considerable. These differences have been made the 

v basis of many speculations regarding the intellectual capacities of 
different races. But nothing that seems final has resulted therefrom. 
A full consideration of the facts as they have thus far been recorded 
seems to establish no reliable correlation — certainly none in individ- 
ual cases — between intellectual pre-eminence and either the shape of 
the skull or the size of the brain. 

Craniology and anthropological studies in general have there- 
fore failed thus far to give any very definite quantitative knowl- 
edge regarding the mental differences of races. On this subject 
Deniker says: "We are unable to affirm anything when we have 
once made up our minds to escape from the commonplace generalities 
that savages are wanting in foresight and general ideas, that they 
are cruel, that their imitative faculties are highly developed, etc." 5 
The Eaces of Man," p. 121. 



6 I I l 



MEASUREMENT OF RACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 5 

Yet it is an accepted postulate of modern physiological psychology 
that cerebral activity underlies and conditions psychical activity. 
And the character of cerebral activity is of course dependent upon 
cerebral structure. If then our knowledge of the anatomy of the 
brain were sufficiently refined, we might be able to discover the key 
to differences in race psychology, and find ample ground for an in- 
ference of real differences in mental capacity. But we are far from 
that at present. Our knowledge of the morphology of the brain is 
yet too meager for us to know anything of great value as to what 
racial differences actually are in the minute but highly refined struc- 
tures on which the mental life may be supposed to depend. Until 
physiological psychology shall have completed its work, we shall 
probably not be able, from a comparative study of the brain, to make 
out either a proof or an estimate of mental differences among the 
races of men. v 

But will the criterion of the comparative achievement of the races 
in civilization serve to measure their relative mental ability! Are 
those peoples who have developed art, science, and invention, and 
have gained such a mastery over man and over the forces of nature, 
to be judged as in any way superior in actual mental endowment 
to peoples who have remained hitherto in a primitive state? The 
presumption may be in their favor, but it is not conclusive. En- 
vironment, opportunity, external circumstance, outward stimulus, 
play such a part in the development of men and nations, that only 
after a most thorough trying-out could any one feel sure of a judg- 
ment as to what are, or what are not, the possibilities of a people. 
Achievement in civilization can not be considered a sufficient test 
of capacity for civilization. History shows such achievement as a 
criterion of race capacity, or race superiority, to be untenable. The 
Chinese were civilized long before the peoples of Europe. Within 
the course of a few generations ancient Athens passed from a state of 
barbarism to a state of culture that has in many respects never been 
surpassed. The proud Eoman looked with contempt upon the bar- 
barous Germans roaming over the plains and through the forests 
of Central Europe. Yet from these wild hunters and fishermen of 
the time of Tacitus have come the leaders and promoters of modern 
civilization. The Germans were at that time an undeveloped people. 
Nevertheless they have shown that they were capable of the highest 
development. We can not therefore say that because a people is 
uncivilized, it can not attain to civilization. We must distinguish 
between the attainments and the possibilities of a people. The prog- 
ress of the Japanese in the last half century, their capacity not only 
to imitate and absorb the civilization developed by other nations, but 



6 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGBO 

to keep their own counsel and to do things in their own way, has been 
such as would cause any careful student of race problems to hesitate 
to set them down now as being only an "average" people. 

It must be evident that ultimately we have no way of judging 
of the capacity of individuals or races except by what they can do. 
Achievement must be the final measure of capacity. Capacity, how- 
ever, must be tested under favorable conditions. It may indeed 
create a presumption against a people's aptitude for civilization that 
they have lived from time immemorial with little or no independent 
progress; but until the matter is subjected to reasonable test under 
favorable circumstances, we can not fix boundaries to the progress 
to which that people may attain. If they have lived hitherto without 
progress under a certain set of circumstances, we are not in a posi- 
tion to infer that they are incapable of progress, even equal to that 
of the most advanced nations, under circumstances more favorable. 

We have seen that we can not rightly infer a difference in the 
mental capacity of races from differences in physical characteristics ; 
that the size or shape of the head can not be taken as an index of 
intellectual ability ; and that the culture of a race at a given time can 
not be regarded as a measure of its capabilities for advancement. 
The measuring of racial differences in mental traits is evidently a 
complex and difficult problem. Nor do these differences now appear 
so striking or obvious as they were formerly supposed to be. There 
is indeed a strong tendency among students of racial problems to 
regard the races, not only as not having been proved unequal in 
mental endowment, but as being, so far as mental inheritance is con- 
cerned, upon a basis of substantial equality. In discussing this 
problem, G-. Spiller says: "We are under the necessity of concluding 
that an impartial investigation would be inclined to look upon the 
various important peoples of the world as to all intents and purposes, 
essentially equal in intellect, enterprise, morality, and physique." 6 
In a comparative study of races, Jean Finot says : ' ' The conclusion 
forces itself upon us that there are no inferior and superior races, 
but only races and peoples living outside or within the influence of 
culture. The appearance of civilization and its evolution among 
certain white peoples and within a certain geographical latitude is 
only the effect of circumstances." 7 It must be said, however, that 
these are but instances of an expression of opinion contrary to that 
which is ordinarily received. They are by no means statements of 
carefully tested knowledge. 

6 ' ' Papers on Inter-Eacial Problems, ' ' p. 35. 
T "Kace Prejudice," p. 308. 



MEASVBEMENT OF BACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 7 

The estimates hitherto made of racial differences in mental traits 
have always proceeded npon a very slender basis of relevant and 
■carefully ascertained fact. It seems necessary to find some new 
method of attack before any satisfactory solution of the problem can 
be made. We should, if possible, find some way of making actual 
mental measurements, and base our study and estimate of mental 
differences between races on the facts thus obtained. There seem to 
t)e two reliable sources of such quantitative data: first, the direct 
measurement of mental traits by means of carefully devised mental 
tests; and, secondly, the comparison of the relative attainment and 
efficiency of different racial groups in the same kind of mental work, 
wherever such work is performed under like conditions, and is meas- 
ured by the same standard, or by such standards as are easily reduc- 
ible to a common measure. 

' Little effort has until recently been made to work out and apply 
«xact and reliable methods for mental measurements and the quanti- 
tative determination of mental differences. Some advance has now 
been made in this direction by the aid of experimental psychology. 
Series of mental tests have been formulated for measuring mental 
development and capacity, but the intricacy of the quantitative study 
of psychic phenomena makes progress in this field of investigation 
slow. The matter of devising satisfactory mental tests is far from 
being simple or easy ; and the application of a test once devised is of 
great practical difficulty, especially in the case of alien peoples whose 
language, habits, manners, and customs are widely different from our 
own. The understanding of the test, the control of attention, and the 
introspection of the subjects tested, are all sources of doubt and 
error. Satisfactory introspection in uncivilized subjects is very diffi- 
cult to obtain. Though it still be far off in achievement, a direct 
measurement of mental phenomena seems to offer the most hopeful 
means of a final solution of the problem of racial differences in mental 
traits. J^ movement was fairly begun in this direction when the 
Cambridge Anthropological Society sent out an expedition in 1898 to 
study in a scientific manner the mental life of the inhabitants of the 
Torres Straits. "For the first time trained experimental psycholo- 
gists investigated by means of an adequate laboratory equipment a 
people in a low stage of culture under their ordinary conditions of 
life. The foundations of ethnical experimental psychology were thus 
laid. ' ' 8 With the results of this expedition and a few similar studies, 
we have what may be called the beginnings of a new era in race 
psychology. 

8 Alfred C. Haddon, "History of Anthropology," p. 104. 



8 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 

The measurements so far made have been in the main of psy- 
chophysical processes. The tests have served to dispel many for- 
merly widespread errors and exaggerations as to the acuity of the 
senses of primitive peoples. The extraordinary power of sight which 
savage tribes are reputed to possess seems to be due more to the train- 
ing and experience incident to their modes of life than to native 
visual acuity. The same may be said of their power to perceive and 
interpret sound. ' ' The general conclusion which may be drawn from 
the available evidence is that pure sense-acuity is much the same in 
all races, . . . and that the frequent superiority of the savage over 
civilized man in his recognition of what is going on around him in 
nature is due to his trained powers of observation, powers usually 
limited in scope, but very highly developed in special directions." 9 

When we come to measure and compare the higher psychical 
functions of individuals or races the problem is at once vastly more 
difficult. No completely satisfactory tests have yet been devised for 
measuring the higher mental processes. Yet the most substantial 
and convincing work in the determination of the relative mental 
capacity of races will, in all probability, come chiefly from a direct 
measurement on a large scale of mental capacity by the methods of 
experimental psychology. The devising of a satisfactory series of 
mental tests, and of methods for so standardizing the conditions of 
the tests as to make results reasonably comparable, is a problem of 
extraordinary difficulty, but hardly one that will baffle the pains- 
taking spirit and subtile ingenuity of modern research. Our methods 
of conducting such investigations, though still defective and inade- 
quate, are being improved and enlarged ; and our results, despite the 
complexity and elusiveness of the facts to be studied, will gradually 
attain to requisite accuracy and reliability. In this way it is con- 
fidently to be expected that racial differences in mental traits will 
eventually submit themselves to exact description and measurement. 

The second method above mentioned of obtaining quantitative 
mental measurements which may be used for a comparative study of 
the mental ability of racial groups is more dependent upon circum- 
stances; but on account of the large number of measurements that 
are sometimes readily accessible, it may, with comparatively little 
labor, lead to results quite as important and reliable as those obtained 
by mental tests. If two racial groups in considerable numbers are 
engaged in like mental work, and if the conditions under which the 
work is done are practically the same, then, if we can determine the 
amount of work done by each group we may regard this as a measure 

9 W. H. Rivers, ' ' Observation on the Senses of the Todas, ' ' British Journal 
of Psychology, December, 1905. 



MEASUREMENT OF RACIAL MENTAL DIFFERENCES 9 

of its capacity for the work. The work done is a function of the ca- 
pacity applied, and varies directly therewith. Hence a measure of the 
amount of work performed by a group under these conditions may 
be regarded as a measure of the group's capacity for this work. 
Material for this sort of investigation may be found in all educational 
institutions in which the student-body is made up of different racial 
groups. Anthropologists have not failed to note the value of this 
source of measurement in estimating and testing racial capacity. 
The marks of teachers made for determining the relative standing 
of pupils, their monthly progress, and their fitness for promotion, 
furnish quantitative data for comparative study. "We have availed 
ourselves of such data in connection with the high schools of the 
City of New York for determining the relative scholastic ability of 
white and colored pupils. The pupils of each group are here pur- 
suing the same kind of work; this work is measured at frequent 
intervals by the same standards; and measurements of the work 
actually done by each pupil are indicated by the teachers' marks. 
By a statistical treatment of these marks we have determined the 
comparative scholarship of the white and the colored pupils, which, 
under the existing conditions, may be regarded as also an index of 
their relative scholastic ability. Such investigation should con- 
tribute something of definite value, not only to educational theory 
and practise, but also to the study of the comparative psychology 
of races. 

It may be pointed out here that the conclusions derived from this 
study are, for the most part, coincident with views that have long 
been of general acceptance. They differ widely from these views, 
however, in the way in which they have been obtained. It is the 
method of their derivation which gives chief value to these conclu- 
sions. They are more definite and more reliable than mere obser- 
vations or opinions could ever be. They are based upon numerical 
data — upon measured facts. It is true that these measurements 
were made for a different purpose than the one here employed. But 
this does not detract from their value or reliability, as the practical 
end which they were designed to meet necessitated as great accuracy 
and care in their determination as could be obtained by the rather 
crude methods of measuring mental attainments which are still in 
general use. 



CHAPTER II 
Data and Methods 

The precise problem whose solution is attempted in this study is 
a determination by a comparison of school marks of the relative 
efficiency in scholarship of the white and colored pupils in the high 
schools of the City of New York. Working under as nearly identical 
conditions as are anywhere existent, pursuing the same branches of 
study, being measured by the same standards of scholarship, and 
having previously received like elementary and grammar school 
training, it is obvious that a valuable opportunity is here afforded for 
a comparative study of these two groups of pupils, and for the ascer- 
tainment of whatever differences in scholastic ability there may exist 
between them. It seems safe to infer under these circumstances, 
where opportunities for improvement have been so largely identical, 
that any marked differences that may appear between the groups i 
are to be attributed, in the main at least, to the influence of race] 
heredity rather than to that of the physical or social environment./ 
The main advantage of the study lies in the fact that the cases con- 
sidered have been freed to a very great extent from disturbing ex- 
ternal influences so that such differences as appear may be legiti- 
mately attributed to original differences in mental constitution. 

The fundamental interest in the study has been to find out the 
differences in mental capacity between the two groups so far as this 
capacity is exercised in school work. While the quantity actually 
measured in the data presented is scholastic efficiency, we assume 
that, when considered in the aggregate, there is a close correspond- 
ence between scholastic efficiency and intellectual capacity, so that 
the measure of one may at the same time be regarded as a measure 
of the other. A direct measurement of mental capacity is obviously 
out of the question. But the results are not to be regarded with less 
confidence on this account ; for indirect measurements are of common 
use in physical as well as in mental science. 

Mental efficiency then being a function of mental ability, we 
assume that, in work so largely intellectual as that required for the 
pursuit of the studies of our secondary educational curricula, a dif- 
ference in scholastic standing is due in the long run to a difference 
in general mental ability. We have sought to determine by an exten- 
sive study of the work actually done in the high school what this dif- 

10 



DATA AND METHODS 11 

ference in standing is. It ought to be of value to find out just what 
per cent, of a group of colored pupils, under such conditions as 
prevail in the high schools of the City of New York, will reach the 
mean or average attainment of a group of white pupils in any sub- 
ject of study. Such information, if reliably determined, may be of 
service to the educator and publicist, and should be of interest to the 
student of psychology and anthropology. 

The study is based upon a statistical treatment of school marks. 
We are aware that there may be misgivings regarding the reliability 
of conclusions derived from investigations based on such data. The 
significance, or lack of significance, of school marks, and their arbi- 
trary and unscientific character, are often subjects of comment and 
unfavorable criticism. It must be admitted that most of the objec- 
tions that can be made against the unreliability of school marks in 
general apply in the case of the marks here considered. Still we 
insist that a school mark is not a fancy but a real measure of the 
pupil's ability; and, if carefully made out, it gives a decidedly more 
reliable determination of the pupil's intellectual capacity than would 
a mere impression or guess. Of course school marks are intended to 
meet the practical needs of instruction and educational administra- 
tion, and have no relation in themselves to the interests or demands 
of science. 

Just what do we mean by a school mark ? The ratings of teachers 
are generally made out quite definitely, as 60, 75, 90. As ordinarily 
used, numbers like these are obtained in the first place, either from 
counting individual objects, or from applying to some quantity a 
definite unit of measurement. But certainly no process of counting 
is made use of by the teacher in obtaining his ratings ; and obviously 
he has no definite unit of measurement with which to determine a 
pupil's mental capacity or attainment. When a pupil's mark in a 
certain subject is 80, we do not mean, as we do in the case of his 
weight or height, that we have applied some objective unit of measure 
to the pupil's attainment in that subject, and found thereby this meas- 
urement. No such units of measure are here available. What the 
teacher ordinarily means, when on some test he gives the pupil a 
rating of 80, is that the pupil has solved 4 out of 5 examples, com- 
posed correctly 8 out of 10 sentences, or written correctly 16 out of 
20 words, no regard as a rule being given to their relative difficulty. 
Or it may mean that the pupil has treated some assigned topic in 
written discourse with a fair degree of fullness, intelligence, and 
formal accuracy. 

It may be noted then that school ratings are without reference to 
fixed standards. We deliberately give equal credits for performances 



12 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEEICAX XEGEO 

of obviously unequal difficulty. We set a paper, say, of five exercises 
as a test in some subject. The fourth exercise is distinctly more dif- 
ficult than any one of the three preceding, while the fifth may require 
a greater power of thought than all the others combined. Yet in 
rating the pupils the exercises are often given equal weight. This 
meets the practical end of separating the pupils into groups of poor, 
average, and high attainment, and aids materially in carrying out 
the work of instruction and promotion. / 

Such ratings separate the pupils on a basis of relative attainment, 
but in no wise give us the absolute differences between them. Ob- 
tained in the manner described, school marks evidently can not be 
treated as numbers ordinarily are. We can not say that a pupil 
whose mark is 100 is twice as intellectual as a pupil whose mark is 
50, or that he has four thirds times the mental power or attainment 
of a pupil whose mark is 75. "Obviously school marks are quite 
arbitrary, and their use at their face value as measures is entirely 
unjustifiable. A 90 per cent, boy may be four times or three times 
or six fifths times as able as an 80 per cent, boy." 1 

The assignment of a school mark always presupposes some arbi- 
trarily fixed scale which is kept in mind by the teacher. Usually this 
scale runs from to 10 or from to 100. The rating of a pupil con- 
sists in assigning him a position somewhere on this scale. The rating 
will vary more or less with every change of subject and with every 
change of teacher. This is due in the main to a change in the abili- 
ties of the pupil, or in his efforts, or in the difficulty of the subject, 
or in the standard of the teacher. These variations, however, would 
never be such as to confuse the ratings of bright, capable, and pains- 
taking pupils with those of the dull, listless, and effortless. The 
latter will always drift to the lower part of the scale, while the upper 
part will be the position occupied by the former. The entire distri- 
bution of a school will in general not be far from that of the normal 
surface of frequency with the average somewhat above the passing 
mark. 

School marks are measures of relative, and not of absolute, mental 
attainment and ability. We can not say that a pupil whose rating is 
has absolutely no ability, or that a pupil whose rating is 100 has 
perfect ability or the highest possible ability, in that subject. What 
we mean is that in the one case the pupil has met none, or practically 
none, of the requirements for passing the subject ; while in the other 
he has met all the requirements in a completely satisfactory way. 
To measure any absolute ability of a pupil we would have to obtain a 
real 0-point in that ability, a real objective unit of the ability, and a 

1 Thorndlke, ' ' Mental and Social Measurements, "p. 7. 



DATA AND METHODS 13 

reliable method of measurement. No one of these as yet is at the 
service of psychology or education. 

"With absolute measurements, however, we may suppose that the 
distribution of individual pupils would be practically the same as 
that resulting from school ratings. Those that we have judged to be 
of the highest ability would be found at the top of the scale, and 
those of the lowest ability at the bottom of the scale, while those of 
medium ability would fall between. This statement of course is a 
mere assumption. And at present there is no way of testing its 
validity. But there can hardly be ground for doubt that our school 
ratings are at least approximate measures of attainment, and that 
our school groupings of pupils as to ability are roughly correct. 
Certain important exceptions to this contention have been pointed 
out. Thus it has been noted by numerous writers that that class of 
ability ranked as genius is not only incorrectly, but often fallaciously, 
measured by school standards. It must be said, however, that school 
standards measure, on an average, all-round ability, while the genius 
may have a decided bent in a single direction, with marked defi- 
ciencies in other directions. Moreover the quality that constitutes 
genius may sometimes be of later development. The school rating 
may not, therefore, be as wide of the mark even in this case as is 
often suspected. There may also be a real difference between the 
attainment and capacity of pupils intellectually bright but deficient 
in energy. An absolute rating of their intellectual ability would fix 
them at a higher level than that of their school ratings. Our school 
ratings measure mental capacities in the lump, however, while abso- 
lute ratings may be assumed theoretically to measure them in isola- 
tion. In this case then, an absolute rating would mark the pupil as 
high in intellect, low in application, and moderate in efficiency. 
Here again then we assume that an average of the different absolute 
ratings would tend to approximate the rating of the school. "We 
think it therefore safe to conclude that the groupings on an absolute 
scale of measurement would be at least roughly the same as those on 
an arbitrary scale. And the absolute-scale marks, while far more 
satisfying to the scientific taste, would probably be little or no 
more useful for the practical purpose for which marks are employed 
in the present state of educational administration than those already 
at our service. 

We are not able to say then just what the absolute difference in 
ability is between a high school pupil whose rating is 90 and another 
whose rating is 60, even when those ratings are assigned by the most 
capable and conscientious teachers. But that the one has met the 
requirements of the school in a far more successful way than the 

2 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGEO 

other — that is, has been more efficient in written and oral recita- 
tions and very likely more orderly in deportment — there is no room 
for reasonable doubt. The highest ratings can be secured only by 
the exercise of high intellectual and moral endowments. We may 
therefore confidently conclude that other things being equal, of any 
two pupils whose average ratings in school are respectively 90 and 60, 
the former's general mental equipment is decidedly better than that 
of the latter. 

But the whole difficulty, one would be apt to think, lies in the 
fact that other things are never equal. Herein, however, consists the 
exact value of statistical treatment. It is a primary principle of sta- 
tistical science that all random irregularities that hopelessly disturb 
and confuse individual cases tend to equalize and rectify themselves 
when treated in the aggregate. Differences which arise between large 
groups of individuals, when treated in this manner, are fundamental 
and real. They must be regarded as inherent in the nature of the 
thing treated and not in matters of chance. 

With other ends in view, several statistical studies of school 
marks have already been made with results of value to psychology 
and education. The rather elaborate system of records kept in the 
high schools of the City of Greater New York suggested the prac- 
ticability of the present study. The large number of items recorded 
lend themselves readily to statistical treatment. If we wish to con- 
sider the work of any two groups of pupils for a determination of 
their likenesses or differences, our chief concern at first is the selec- 
tion of such cases as will be fairly typical of the groups, and then to 
make the number of cases selected large enough for chance varia- 
tions within the groups to counterbalance each other. When we 
have obtained the records of a sufficient number of cases, we have 
only to tabulate and compare the data recorded, in order to ascer- 
tain the relative standing of the groups with reference to any matter 
of interest. Whatever differences there may be between the groups 
will be at once manifest, and in a numerical form. If one group 
surpasses the other in any respect, the fact is apparent on the face of 
the data; and if the number of cases is great enough to render the 
selection sufficiently representative, then we may with some assur- 
ance make out, not only the fact of difference, but also an approxima- 
tion to its exact measurement. 

Among the items recorded are the dates of birth of the pupil and 
of his entrance to the high school, a record of attendance with the 
days of absence and the times of tardiness, and, as a rule, four marks 
in each subject for each term of five months — a set of two marks, one 
based on the daily class-room record and one on a final examination 



DATA AND METHODS 15 

being made for each quarter. Sometimes all the marks are averaged 
and a single mark is recorded for the term. The pupil, as a rule, is 
graded by one or more different teachers in each subject. The marks 
are recorded in per cents. The passing mark is 60. 

Great care was exercised in the selection of cases, as the signifi- 
cance and the reliability of the study were so largely dependent upon 
this factor. All records which have been considered were taken 
from mixed schools in order that the measurements of pupils might 
be obtained in terms of a single standard. To compare the records 
of pupils in colored high schools with those in high schools for whites 
would at once involve us in the difficulty of two more or less differ- 
ent standards of scholarship without any known or easily ascertain- 
able common measure. This difficulty was obviated by selecting 
cases from mixed schools only. From any one school the same num- 
ber of cases was selected for each group. Whatever standards were 
applied, then, in the testing or measuring of one group were applied 
also in the case of the other. 

As to the colored pupils, every individual was considered whose 
name and record could be obtained. By colored pupils are meant 
such as are reported by teachers as "colored" and doubtless only 
those are included who were obviously possessed of a considerable 
degree of negro blood. As race or nationality is not indicated on 
the record card, it was found difficult to get the names of colored 
pupils except such as were actually in attendance at school. In two 
large high schools a fairly complete list of all the colored pupils who 
entered during the years 1906-1909 inclusive was secured. Hence, 
in the case of the colored pupils, the whole group has been studied so 
far as it could be obtained. 

In choosing white pupils for comparison, the rule for random se- 
lection was at all times carefully observed. Several different nation- 
alities were included in the study, among them, notably, English, 
Germans, Irish, Italians, and Jews. The selection of cases from 
groups of pupils who had been put together in classes on the basis 
of good or poor scholarship was consistently avoided. An effort was 
made to pair the individuals of each group at random on entering 
high school; that is, if six colored pupils entered any high school 
at the opening of any term among a whole entering class, of, say, 
400 pupils, then out of the 394 whites, six were selected at random, 
and the subsequent records of attendance and scholarship of the two 
groups were followed up and compared. This method had certain 
advantages, and was employed as far as practicable. In particular, 
if carried out, it would have shown which of the two groups tended 
to remain in school the longer, and which one of a colored and white 



16 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGBO 

pair would be the more likely to graduate from the high school. 
Also following up the progress of the pupils from the time of en- 
trance, it is obvious that this method would give the most satisfactory 
and reliable comparative result. 

But the selection of cases by this method was not always prac- 
ticable. The necessary records at times could not be easily secured. 
A second method of selecting white cases was then employed. As the 
colored pupils were practically always in actual attendance at school, 
white cases were selected at random from the current directory, care 
being taken to pair pupils only who had been in school the same 
length of time. If the record of a colored pupil who had been dis- 
charged or graduated was obtained, a chance selection of a record 
was made from the corresponding group of white pupils. This 
method of selection tends of course to make the record of attendance 
of the two groups the same, and interferes with the problem of 
determining which group has the tendency to remain longer in the 
high school. 

There is a popular belief that mulattoes are more successful in 
learning than colored pupils of the pure negro type. It would then 
have been a matter of interest to separate the colored pupils into 
subgroups on the basis of the degree of race mixture, and to note 
their relative class standing; but judgments of this sort were so 
difficult to obtain and so often appeared to be of doubtful value that 
the effort to attain this result was abandoned. 

Another question bearing an important relation to the study is the 
degree to which the white and the colored high school pupils respec- 
tively represent the same proportionate selection from the adolescent 
population of the two races. We are not able to determine this pre- 
cisely but statistical data go to show that the selection is much closer 
for the colored than for the white race. The colored population of 
the state of New York according to the census of 1910 is about 1.5 
per cent, of the entire population; while according to the reports of 
the United States Commissioner of Education the colored high school 
enrollment for the state of New York was .36 per cent, of the total 
enrollment in 1907 ; .38 per cent, in 1908 ; and .14 per cent, in 1909. 
This would show that in proportion to the population about four 
times as many whites as colored are enrolled in the high schools. 

While the colored high school pupils thus represent a closer selec- 
tion from the entire population than do the whites in the ratio of 
about four to one, we do not know upon what basis this selection is 
made. It is probably upon a mixed basis of intellectual ability and 
social standing. If the selection were made solely upon the basis of 
intellectual ability, the closer selection of a group would naturally 



DATA AND METHODS 17 

accrue to its advantage in a comparative study like this. And if the 
social standing of the family in the community were taken as a basis, 
the result of selection would probably be largely the same. There 
can be little doubt that mental ability and material prosperity will 
be found to be associated together in a very large degree. 



CHAPTER III 

COMPAEATIVE AGES AND TlME OP ATTENDANCE 

The average age of the pupils of the two groups on entering high 
school is of importance because of its bearing on their progress 
through the grades; and their average time of attendance, because 
of its relation to their continuance in school. A determination of 
these will serve to throw statistical light on the problems of "retar- 
dation" and of student "mortality." 

TABLE I 

Showing Ages of Pupils on Entering High School 





Years 










No. Whites 






• No 


. Colored 




12.25 










3 








1 




12.50 










1 








2 




12.75 










5 








4 




13.00 










4 








2 




13.25 










11 








9 




13.50 










7 








7 




13.75 










13 








6 




14.00 










13 








11 




14.25 










15 








8 




14.50 










21 








15 




14.75 










12 








7 




15.00 










14 








9 




15.25 










11 








12 




15.50 










6 








11 




15.75 










2 








7 




16.00 










5 








7 




16.25 










1 








5 




16.50 










1 








3 




16.75 










3 








2 




17.00 










1 








7 




17.25 



















2 




17.50 



















3 




17.75 



















3 




18.00 



















1 




18.25 
























18.50 



















1 


' 


18.75 
























19.00 



















1 




19.25 










1 








4 


The 


average age 


of 


whites 


is 


14 years 5 


months ; 


of colored, 15 years 


2 months, 


. The med 


iau 


. age of whites is 14 years 


6 months 


; of colored, 15 years 


1 month. 


The A.D. 


of whites is 


9 months; of colored, 


15 months. 
















18 











COMPARATIVE AGES AXD TIME OF ATTEXDAXCE 



19 



The ages of the pupils on entering high school are shown in Table 
I. The average age of the white pupils is 14 years 5 months ; of the 
colored, 15 years 2 months — a difference of nine months. On account 
of the undue influence of a few cases of colored pupils who were un- 
usually late in entering high school, the median may be considered 
a better comparative measure for the age of entrance. The median 
age of the whites is 14 years 6 months; of the colored 15 years 1 
month — a difference of seven months. 




Fig. 



13 14 15 16 17 18 19 

l 1 Showing the Distribution of Pupils by Age. (See Table I.) 



In either case the colored pupils on entering high school have, on 
the whole, more than half a year's age in advance of the whites. 
This can be due only to a later entrance into the elementary school, or 
to retardation in the grades, or to a temporary delay after gradua- 
tion from grammar school before entering the high school. In view 
of the compulsory education law, which would tend to equalize the 
ages of all pupils on entering the elementary school, and in view of 
the fact that there would be no probable reason for a temporary dis- 
continuance of school life at the close of the grammar school period 
except in accidental cases, retardation in the grades seems to be the 
only likely explanation. If this is found to be true, it will mean 
that it requires the colored pupils on the whole from one to two terms 
longer than the white to complete the elementary school course — a 
matter of considerable significance from the point of view of teach- 
ing as well as from that of educational expenditure. 

1 The solid line indicates the distribution of the -white pupils, the broken line 
the colored. 



20 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGEO 



TABLE II 
Showing the Distribution of Pupils According to the Term of Attendance 
From all Schools 

Term White Colored 

First 29 23 

Second 31 20 

Third 20 21 

Fourth 20 18 

Fifth 6 11 

Sixth 7 9 

Seventh 14 17 

Eighth 13 9 



Ninth ..., 

Tenth 

Eleventh . 
Twelfth . . 
Thirteenth 



The average time for all whites is 3.8 terms; all colored, 4.5 terms. 
Note. — For pupils in school the ordinals at the left show the term of attend- 
ance; for discharged pupils, the term of attendance when discharged. 

The records show also that colored pupils remain in the high 
school a greater length of time than do the whites. The facts are 
indicated in Table II. The average time spent in school, or rather 

30 



20 



10 













» — . 








1 








1 


"~"i 


"*"*T 






1 


i 




n-,.. 



Fig. 2. 



Showing the Distribution of Pupils by the Number of Years of At- 
tendance. (See Table II.) 



that had been spent in school when the records were taken, was for 
149 colored pupils 4.5 terms, and for 149 white pupils 3.8 terms. 
This would tend to indicate that colored pupils remain in the high 
school for a considerably longer period than the whites. On account 



COMPARATIVE AGES AND TIME OF ATTENDANCE 21 

of the large numbers of both groups who early close their high school 
career, it does not necessarily have any very close connection with 
the average time required by each group for completing the course 
of study. It mainly points to the conclusion that for some or various 
reasons, white pupils are more prone to quit the high school than are 
the colored. 

The selection of cases by the second method was such as not to 
enable us to determine the relative time spent in school. The pupils 
studied being taken from the current enrollments and paired accord- 
ing to date of entrance, as has already been explained, the two groups 
are put on practically the same basis in point of time of attendance. 
This selection obviously tends to neutralize any differences of this 
sort that might exist between the groups. It also tends to make 
the obtained time greater than the actual time of attendance for each 
group. For the colored pupils selected, being those in actual attend- 
ance at the time, represent only the survivors of the whole entering 
group, and their average time of attendance is naturally greater than 
the average for the entire group. The same observation holds of 
course for the whites who were selected for comparison. For the 
pupils studied, about 28 per cent, of the whites attained the average 
time of attendance for the colored. About 12 per cent, of the whites 
and 18 per cent, of the colored remained in school eight terms or 
more. This would seem to indicate that the probabilities of remain- 
ing in high school long enough to complete the course are consider- 
ably greater for the colored pupil than for the white. But the 
number of cases is so small as to give no great reliability to the last 
mentioned estimate. 

We have found that colored pupils are, on an average, from 7 to 
9 months older than white pupils on entering the high school. To 
just what extent this retardation in the grades exists in the New 
York City and other city schools could be determined only by a spe- 
cial study of the subject. The time will probably come when fuller 
statistical light will be sought on such problems for the better guid- 
ance of educational administration. There are considerations and 
available statistical data, however, which tend to show that it is, on 
the whole, probably more pronounced than is here indicated. 

The law requires children in New York City under 16 years of 
age to be in attendance at school. Children under this age can not 
be legally employed unless they first obtain work certificates from 
the Board of Health. To be eligible to receive a work certificate, the 
child, among other things, must have attended school for 130 days 
after his thirteenth birthday. In accordance with this provision of 
the law, a pupil may drop out of school and seek employment while 



22 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGBO 

yet in the grades. This is a matter of common occurrence. It 
applies for the most part to backward pupils. We have no direct 
data showing that it is true to a greater extent of colored pupils than 
of whites. It is possible, however, that this is the case; and if so, 
the actual measure of retardation would be greater than that which 
we have obtained. 

The school reports of cities having a considerable colored popula- 
tion often contain data bearing on the problems of retardation and 
school attendance. In the cities of the Northern States, however, 
where separate schools for colored pupils are not maintained, and 
where the race of the pupils is not indicated on the school record, no 
data pertaining to these topics are published. Separate school sys- 
tems are maintained in all the Southern States, and school reports 
contain an abundance of material relating to the education of the 
races. The colored schools as a rule, however, are less adequate in 
organization and equipment, and in the training and number of 
teachers. The standards of education must therefore vary much, 
even when serious effort is put forth to make them the same. It may 
well be, then, that conclusions drawn from a comparative treatment 
of the data published in these reports will have to be subjected to 
more or less revision; but they point to certain general tendencies 
which seem to be clearly defined and may prove to be fundamental. 
In the Kansas City (Missouri) report for 1910, Tables III. A 
(White) and III. A (Colored) show the number of pupils finishing 
each grade with the time required for its completion. There were 
11,594 white pupils finishing grades, and 1,557 colored. We have 
calculated the time required as shown in the annexed table. 

TABLE III 

Grades I II III IV V VI VII Total 

Av. No. Yrs. for whites 1.19 1.12 1.14 1.14 1.05 1.17 1.08 7.89 

Av. No. Yrs. for colored 1.24 1.21 1.19 1.14 1.27 1.12 1.24 8.41 

Difference 05 .09 .05 .00 .22 .05 .16 .52 

The number for the first two time-intervals in the tables of the 
Report were undistributed. So we used the numbers given as be- 
longing to the first interval only. The average time required for 
colored pupils to complete a grade is somewhat greater in each in- 
stance than that required for the white, except in the fourth grade, 
where it is the same, and in the sixth, where it is less. On the whole, 
it requires about half a year longer for colored pupils to pass through 
the grades. 

In the same report we find that the median age for 1,617 whites 
when they are supposed to enter the high school to be 14 years 11 



COMPARATIVE AGES AND TIME OF ATTENDANCE 23 

months; and for 132 colored pupils, 15 years 4 months — a difference 
of 5 months. 

From the St. Louis report for 1910, we take the two tables here 
given. 

TABLE IV 
Average Age of Pupils Beginning Kindergarten and First Grade 

White Colored Difference Normal Age 

Kindergarten 6.24 6.33 .09 6.00 

First grade 7.26 7.49 .23 7.00 

TABLE V 

Average Age of Pupils Completing Kindergarten and Grades 

White Colored Difference Normal Age 

Kindergarten 7.00 7.13 .13 7.00 

First grade 8.39 8.95 .56 8.00 

Second grade 9.58 10.11 .53 9.00 

Third grade 10.61 11.26 .65 10.00 

Fourth grade 11.75 12.29 .54 11.00 

Fifth grade 12.58 13.01 .43 12.00 

Sixth grade 13.29 14.46 1.17 13.00 

Seventh grade 13.98 14.89 .91 14.00 

Eighth grade 1*4.79 15.61 .82 ^ . 15.00 

These tables indicate that the colored pupils are a little, but not 
much, older than the white pupils on entering the kindergarten. 
The difference in age is somewhat greater on entering the first grade 
— the average difference being from two to three months. At the 
time of completing the first grade, the average difference in age is 
more than half a year, which seems to indicate a considerable retar- 
dation of the colored pupils in the first grade. After the first grade, 
the difference in average ages dees not vary a great deal until the 
sixth grade is reached, when according to the figures of the table, the 
difference suddenly rises to a maximum. The difference in average 
ages at the completion of the eighth grade is approximately 10 
months — about 7 of which are due to retardation in the grades, espe- 
cially the first and the sixth. The difference in average ages between 
the pupils, both colored and white, completing any two successive 
grades is more than a year in every instance until the fifth grade is 
reached. At this point it becomes less than a year, which would 
probably indicate a heavy withdrawal of the backward pupils from 
school in the fifth and succeeding grades. 

The report of the Memphis (Tenn.) public schools for the school 
year of 1908-1909 gives the average ages of the white and the 
colored pupils in the various grades. (See page 24.) 



24 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 

TABLE VI 

Average Age of White and Colored Pupils in the Several Grades 

of the Memphis Public Schools 

Grade Av. Age of Whites Av. Age of Colored Difference 

First 7.04 8.2 1.2 

Second 8.7 10.4 1.7 

Third 10.0 11.6 1.6 

Fourth 11.1 12.4 1.3 

Fifth 12.0 13.3 1.3 

Sixth 12.8 14.1 1.3 

Seventh 13.8 14.9 1.1 

Eighth 14.6 15.7 1.1 

This distribution by ages is made out for 8,500 white pupils, and 
5,180 colored. Retardation seems to occur here mainly in the first 
and second grades. This is further emphasized by the fact that 
61 per cent, of the colored pupils are found in these two grades as 
compared with 36 per cent, of the whites. 

From the annual report of the St. Louis public schools for 1909 
(Table C, page 50) we take the distribution of pupils by ages in the 
high schools. 

TABLE VII 
Distribution of Pupils by Ages in the St. Louis High School, June 1, 1909 

Years 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 & over Total 

Whites .... 2 35 268 826 954 969 703 418 4,175 

Colored .... 1 9 44 78 75 94 93 394 

The average age of white high school pupils here is 17 years; of col- 
ored, 17 years 10 months. Of the whites about 27 per cent., and of 
the colored 47 per cent., are 18 years old or older. Of the colored 
pupils nearly 24 per cent, are 19 years old or older, as compared with 
10 per cent, of the whites. In the same table (Table C) it is shown 
that more than 5 per cent, of the colored and less than 2 per cent, 
of the whites, who are still in the grades, are 16 years old or older. 
Of 572 white pupils in the West Port high school, Kansas City, in 
1907, no one was over 20 years of age ; while of 310 colored pupils in 
the Lincoln high school, eighteen were over 20 years of age. 

There is a decided agreement between these various school reports 
and the data we have collected. Our own table shows that the great 
body of white pupils enter the high school between the ages of 13 and 
15.5 years; while the colored pupils enter in large numbers between 
the ages of 13 and 16.5 years. Four per cent, of the white and 25 
per cent, of the colored pupils enter after the seventeenth birthday. 
Twenty-seven per cent, of the whites are as old as the median age of 
the colored. The whites are more regular in age on entering the 



COMPARATIVE AGES AND TIME OF ATTENDANCE 25 

high school. The average deviation in age for whites is 9 months; 
for colored, 15 months. 

The data presented seem to justify two important conclusions. 
First, the colored pupils, on an average, suffer a considerably greater 
retardation in the grades, and are more advanced in age on entering 
the high school. Second, the white pupils are subjected to a greater 
mortality or to an earlier discontinuance of high school than the 
colored. Eelative retardation and persistence in school would seem 
to be characteristic of the high school colored group. 

It would be interesting to know the reason for the difference in 
'the time of attendance of the two groups. There are likely a num- 
ber of considerations each contributing in a measure to it. The 
cause may be for the greater part economic and social. There is a 
considerably wider field of opportunity open to white high school 
pupils for securing employment, and on this account they may be 
tempted to leave school even to an extent out of proportion to their 
much greater numbers. Also a relatively much smaller per cent, 
of the colored school population is enrolled in school than the white. 
It is therefore possible that the pupils of the colored group are 
selected from families in a better economic condition than the average 
white family, and hence there may be less need for the help of the 
children in maintaining the home. It is also possible that the negro 
parent, in many cases, has an even greater faith in the advantages 
which an education gives to his children, and that he is consequently 
the more self-sacrificing in his efforts to keep them in school. The 
cause may also lie partly in the different mental constitution of the 
groups. The negro pupil probably has greater patience than the 
white when making little or no progress in his studies ; he may also 
be less sensitive to failure and ridicule; and he may therefore be 
less likely to withdraw from school on account of discouragement. 
It may be that the initiative and enterprise of the white pupil cause 
him to grow restless in school and long for more active work, or a 
greater desire to earn money may induce him earlier to seek employ- 
ment. However we may account for it, the records seem to indicate 
clearly that colored pupils once in the high school tend to remain 
longer than the whites. According to the records obtained, of a 
hundred pupils of each group having entered high school at any 
time, when 50 per cent, of the colored pupils are still in attendance, 
only 28 per cent, of the whites will remain. 



CHAPTER IV 

Comparative Scholastic Efficiency 

Of more importance than matters of age or attendance is the suc- 
cess of the pupil in school. The relative scholastic success or effi- 
ciency of the white and the colored high school pupils was the topic 
of central interest in pursuing the investigation. The comparative 
scholastic records of the two groups are shown in Tables VIII.- 
XXII. 

Table VIII. summarizes the results of the work of all pupils of 
each group for the whole period of time spent in school in the fol- 
lowing subjects: English, modern languages, ancient languages, 
mathematics, science, history, and the commercial branches. One 
mark is here given for each pupil. This mark is obtained by scoring 
all the different scholarship marks set down on the pupil's record 
card and determining their median. When any subject is repeated, 
however, the marks made on a second or later trial are not considered. 
The number of marks from which the medians are obtained varied 
greatly according to the length of time the pupil had been in school, 
as well as in accordance with the course of study pursued, and the 
number of marks required to be put on record in the different high 
schools. The average number of marks from which each median was 
obtained was 60 or more — which means that the median measure here 
given is about the average of some sixty different measures of a 
pupil's achievement. All these measures were in turn averages of a 
series of individual measures previously made in class recitations or 
tests. 

Table VIII., then, is a general table, embodying in a condensed 
form all the facts of the other tables on the scholastic standing of the 
two groups. It represents in a general way the comparative average 
attainment of white and colored pupils in the high schools of the 
City of New York ; and presumably like results would be obtained in 
other cities where similar conditions prevail. 

To determine the relative standing of the two groups, we first set 
down the median marks of the individual pupil as given in Table 
VIII. and reckon in turn their median. This final result gives a 
measure of what each group as a whole has attained in scholarship, 
and may be regarded as a sort of all-round measure of comparative 
mental ability as applied in school studies. 

26 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 



27 



TABLE VIII 

Median Marks in All Subjects for All Terms, First Trial 

Measures Whites Colored 

Below 20 

20-24 1 

25-29 

30-34 1 

35-39 1 

40-44 3 5 

45-49 3 

50-54 8 16 

55-59 9 23 

60-64 46 -49 

65-69 29, 34 

70-74 29 4 

75-79 7 6 

80-84 8 4 

85-89 1 1 

90-100 3 1 

so ^ M 

i i 



30 



10 



«""» 



o 



J3 



SO 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 3 2 . Showing the Eelative Attainment of the Two Groups in all Studies. 
(See Table VIII.) 

2 The horizontal row of numbers indicates the marks obtained by pupils on 
the scale 0-100; the vertical row indicates the number of pupils obtaining the 
various marks. 



28 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 

The median mark of the 150 cases of white pupils in all subjects 
combined is 66 ; and of the 150 cases of colored pupils 62, a difference 
of 4 points, or 4 per cent. 

One might have expected a higher average standing for either 
group than the one here attained. The artificial effect of the passing 
mark of 60 is obvious. There is a decided crowding of the pupils in 
the 60 's. There are several easily assignable reasons for this. Here 
will naturally be found the great body of those pupils to whom pass- 
ing a subject is a spur to industry, but in whom the joy of making 
an excellent record or the duty of doing one's best fails to excite the 
highest endeavor. Here also fall many plodders whose steady efforts 
obtain for them the prize of promotion. The spur of the teacher also 
holds some up to the passing mark who would otherwise fail ; and her 
final efforts, especially when promotion is decided by an examination 
at the close of the term, are given most assiduously, not to those 
pupils who are certain of passing or certain of failing, but to those 
whose standing is still a matter of doubt. We judge, therefore, that 
whatever the passing mark is made, so long as the requirements are 
such that the average pupil can with reasonable effort meet them, 
the distribution of the cases will not be essentially different from 
what it is here. The central position or tendency of the white group 
is 6 points above the passing mark; for the colored group, 2. This 
fact would indicate that promotion is, as a rule, considerably more 
doubtful of attainment for pupils of the colored group. 

A reference to the table shows that 44 cases, or 29 per cent., of 
the colored pupils reach or surpass the median mark for white 
pupils ; that is, 29 out of a hundred colored pupils would get as high 
a rating in school studies as 50 out of a hundred white pupils ; or, 
what comes to the same thing, the 29 highest of a hundred colored 
pupils will outrank the lowest 50 of the whites. Corresponding to 
these 50 lowest cases of whites would be 71 cases of the colored group. 
One hundred and nine cases, or 73 per cent., of the white group reach 
the median mark of the colored group. 

The middle 50 per cent, of white pupils range in their marks from 
61 to 72, inclusive ; the middle 50 per cent, of colored, from 57 to 67, 
inclusive. The variation of the white group is slightly greater than 
that of the colored group, the average deviation being in the one case 
7, in the other 6.5. The median deviation probable error for the 
white group is 5.5; that for the colored group, 5. 

The colored pupils being largely made up of crossings between 
races, one might naturally have expected a wider degree of variabil- 
ity to have appeared in the scholastic attainments of this group. It 
would seem natural to expect that race mixture would tend to in- 



COMPABATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 29 

crease the variability of the offspring. There are indications, how- 
ever, that the negro as a race is somewhat less variable in hereditary- 
endowments than is the white race. It may be that the variability 
of the former lies entirely within the limits of the variability of the 
latter. In such case, the increased variability of one group might 
still be less than the natural variability of the other. The extremes 
of scholastic variation as here presented reach about the same limits. 
That the average deviation or variability of the colored pupils is 
somewhat less may probably be due in part to their more compact 
grouping about the passing mark. 

It may be observed that the general impression among teachers is 
that colored pupils are less successful in their studies than are the 
whites. Hence a greater difference in the average standing or cen- 
tral tendency of the two groups might have been anticipated. A dif- 
ference of 4 points in average class standing between two groups 
pursuing a large number of studies does not seem at all striking ; but 
a difference of ability which much exceeded this would render the co- 
education of the two races impracticable. The difference between 
the two groups is small indeed when compared with their overlap- 
ping. If their records were indiscriminately mixed, you could not 
possibly -separate the one from the other by the character of the 
marks. This shows that educationally they may be regarded as a 
single group. We assume, then, that, under such conditions as pre- 
vail in the high schools of the City of New York, a difference of 4 
points as determined by teachers' marks is a fair measure of the 
difference in scholastic standing between the two groups. It is a 
matter of regret that no data sufficiently like the above exist with 
which to compare this result. The school reports of the city of Nash- 
ville show that the average marks of white and colored high school 
pupils for 1904-1905 were, respectively, 74 and 66; and for 1905- 
1906, 75 and 59. The differences here are substantially greater than 
the difference obtained from our data. The groups in Nashville, 
however, are educated in separate schools. It is quite certain that 
equal facilities are not provided for both groups. It is also prob- 
able that the standards of efficiency are not the same for both classes 
of schools, so that reliable comparisons can not be made. It is fur- 
thermore probable that the relative degree of race mixture in the 
colored pupils of the two sections may be a factor in the problem. 

Tables IX.-XXII. show the comparative standing of the two 
groups in special subjects. They are of interest for the reason that 
they indicate the relative attainment of colored and white pupils in 
different fields of study, involving more or less different forms of 
mental activity. The first two of these tables are based upon the 

3 



30 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGEO 



work in English. Table IX. shows the median marks of both groups 
in the study of English for the first half-year in high school ; Table 
X. shows the same marks in English for all terms combined. The 
marks recorded in Table IX. are the medians of the several marks 
given to individual pupils in first term English; in Table X. they 
are the medians of all marks received in the study of English. It 

TABLES IX-X 

Median Marks in English 

First Term All Terms 

Measures White Colored White Colored 

Below 20 -. 1 1 

20-24 

25-29 

30-34 2 1 1 1 

35-39 1 3 1 1 

40-44 1 5 3 4 

45-49 2 6 1 9 

50-54 8 14 9 19 

55-59 7 18 5 25 

60-64 24 39 36 39 

65-69 28 26 37 28 

70-74 31 10 28 10 

75-79 16 11 11 6 

80-84 13 6 10 4 

85-89 6 1 3 3 

90-100 3 2 3 



40 




20 30 40 50 60 

Fig. 4. Showing the Kelative Attainment of 
English. 



70 30 90 

the Two Groups in First Term 
(See Table IX.) 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 



31 



would have been interesting to make a comparison of the standing 
of the two groups in English and in other subjects for several suc- 
cessive intervals, and especially for successive years; but our data 
are insufficient to give the desired reliability to such results. The 
reliability of an average measurement depends largely upon the num- 
ber of the measurements considered. We chose a figure for the first 
term because of the large number of different cases ; and a figure for 
all terms, because of the large number of different measurements. 

4=0 



20 



20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

FlG. 5. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in English for 
all Terms. (See Table X.) 



The median mark of the white pupils in first term English is 69, 
of the colored 62; and 22 per cent, of the colored pupils reach the 
median mark of the whites. The median mark of the white pupils 
in English for all terms is 67, for colored, 61 ; and 24 per cent, of the 
colored pupils reach or surpass the median mark of the whites. 

Tables XI. and XII. show the comparative records of the two 
groups in the study of modern languages. The modern languages 
pursued are mainly German and French, Spanish being the language 
studied in some instances. In a few cases, also, two languages are 
studied simultaneously, after the second year. When a language 
was begun in the third year, it was reckoned among the third year 
subjects. 

For the first term the median mark of white pupils in modern 
languages is 66, of colored 63 ; and 42 per cent, of the colored pupils 
reach the median mark of the whites. For all terms the median 



32 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGRO 



20 




20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 6. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in First Term 
Modern Languages. (See Table XL) 

TABLES XI-XII 
Median Marks in Modern Languages 
First Term 
Measures 
Below 20 

20-24 

25-29 

30-34 

35-39 

40-44 

45-49 

50- 54 

55-59 

60- 64 

65-69 



70- 74 l: 

75-79 

80-84 .' 

85-89 

90-100 



White 

1 


Colored 
1 








1 


1 





3 


5 


4 


1 


3 


2 


7 


6 


10 


5 


8 


21 


17 


13 


12 


11 


11 


8 


5 


11 


10 


7 


3 


2 


2 



All 
White 
3 


Terms 
Colored 
2 











2 


2 


2 


5 


2 


4 


5 


5 


18 


15 


15 


16 


21 


36 


31 


23 


19 


19 


10 


12 


6 


4 


5 


4 


2 




20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 7. Showing the Eelative Attainment of the Two Groups in Modern Lan- 
guages for all Terms. (See Table XII.) 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 



s a 



mark of white pupils is 63, of colored 60 ; and 33 per cent, of the col- 
ored pupils reach the median mark of the whites. 

Table XIII. shows the median marks in mathematics for the first 
term ; Table XIY. the same for all terms. Elementary algebra is the 
subject of study in first year mathematics except in a few cases in 
which commercial arithmetic is studied simultaneously with it or is 
substituted for it. Plane geometry is in nearly every instance the 
subject studied during the second year. We have in addition a few 
cases in which intermediate or higher algebra, solid geometry, or 
plane trigonometry is pursued. 

tables xni-xrv 

Median Marks in Mathematics — Subjects Combested 

First Term All Terms 

Measures White Colored White Colored 

Below 20 3 4 1 6 

20-24 1 1 2 

25-29 1 

30-34 3 1 5 4 

35-39 5 6 3 6 

40-44 5 3 9 

45-49 5 9 8 7 

50-54 14 14 10 18 

55-59 4 11 17 23 

60-64 34 14 26 27 

65-69 14 15 22 17 

70-74 13 20 11 11 

75-79 22 18 17 7 

80-84 17 2 11 3 

85-89 8 8 6 3 

90-100 6 7 2 4 



30 



20 



10 



ft-tJt 



20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

FlG. 8. Showing the Belative Attainment of the Two Groups in First Term 
Mathematics. (See Table Xin.) 



34 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGBO 



20 



10 



1 

1 
J 

1 
1 


i 
i 
i 


>T 


L, ia 



20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 9. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in Mathematics 
for all Terms. (See Table XIV.) 

The median mark of the white pupils in first term mathematics is 
66, of colored pupils 65; and 46 per cent, of the colored pupils 
reach the median mark of the whites. The median mark of the white 
pupils for all terms in mathematics is 64, of the colored 59 ; and 32 
per cent, of the colored pupils reach the median mark of the whites. 

Tables XV., XVI., XVII. show the comparative standing of the 
groups in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry respectively. The con- 
siderable difference in relative standing between the two groups dur- 
ing the first term and for the entire period suggested the tabulation 
of the results separately in order to see their comparative attain- 
ments in the different mathematical branches. The median mark of 



TABLES XV-XVII 

Median Marks in Mathematics — Subjects Separate 





Aritb 


METIC 


Algebra 


Geometry 




First 


Term 


First 


Year 


Second Year 


Measures 


White 


Colored 


White 


Colored 


White 


Colored 


Below 20 . 


. 





3 


4 


3 


8 


20- 24 . 


. 





2 





2 


5 


25- 29 . 


. 








1 








30- 34 . 


. 


1 


4 


2 


1 


3 


35- 39 . 


. 2 


2 


3 


5 


1 


6 


40- 44 . 


. 


4 


2 


8 


5 


6 


45- 49 . 


. 


1 


11 


10 


6 


6 


50- 54 . 


. 3 


4 


8 


12 


6 


9 


55- 59 . 


. 3 


3 


13 


13 


10 


10 


60- 64 . 


. 5 


10 


23 


25 


18 


9 


65- 69 . 


. 13 


10 


21 


11 


8 


4 


70- 74 . 


. 6 


6 


11 


18 


4 


5 


75- 79 . 


. 8 


4 


15 


13 


8 


1 


80- 84 . 


. 5 





12 


3 


6 


1 


85- 89 . 


. 2 





7 


3 


2 


1 


90-100 . 


. 1 





2 


5 









COMPABATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 



35 



white pupils in arithmetic is 67, of colored pupils 63; and 39 per 
cent, of colored pupils reach the median mark of the whites. The 
median mark of white pupils in algebra is 64, of colored 62; and 4A 
per cent, of the colored pupils reach the median mark of the whites. 
The median mark of white pupils in geometry is 60, of colored 50; 
and 26 per cent, of the colored pupils reach the median mark of the 
whites. 

In the study of elementary science, the subject of biology or phys- 
iology is usually pursued in the first year of high school, chemistry 
the second year, and physics the third year. Tables XVIII.-XIX. 
show the comparative results of the study of the sciences. 





TABLES XVIII-XIX 








Median Makes in 


Science 








First 


Term 


All Terms 


Measures 


White 


Colored 1 


White 


Colored 


Below 20 














20-24 





2 

1 



1 


1 


25-29 


1 





30-34 


1 


1 





4 


35-39 





2 





3 


40- 44 


4 


4 

7 

12 


4 
3 
5 


5 


45- 49 


3 


8 


50-54 


4 


13 


55-59 


13 


8 


16 


14 


60-64 


15 


22 


27 


35 


65-69 


26 


24 


23 


18 


70- 74 


29 


19 


28 


16 


75-79 


18 


17 


17 


9 


80-84 


14 


9 


5 


4 


85-89 


3 


4 
2 


1 
1 





90-100 


2 






30 



20 



10 




L- 



20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 10. Showing the Eelative Attainment of the Two Groups in the First 
Term Science. (See Table XVIII.) 



36 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 




Fig. 11 



Showing the Eelative Attainment of the Two Groups in Science for all 
Terms. (See Table XIX.) 



The median mark of the white pupils in science for the first term 
is 69, of the colored 65 ; and 39 per cent, of the colored group reach 
the median mark of the whites. The , median mark of the white 
pupils for all terms in science is 67, of the colored 61 ; and 29 per 
cent, of the colored group reach the median mark of the whites. 

Table XX. presents all data on history and related subjects for 
all terms. Table XXI. gives the same data for the ancient lan- 
guages — Latin and Greek. 

The median mark of the white pupils in the study of history for 
all terms is 66, of colored 60 ; and 31 per cent, of the colored group 
reach the median mark of the whites. 

The median mark of the white pupils in the study of Greek and 
Latin for all terms is 65, of the colored 60 ; and 27 per cent, of the 
colored group reach the median mark of the whites. 

Table XXII. presents all data for all terms on the several com- 
mercial subjects — bookkeeping, stenography, business forms, and 
commercial law. There is no doubt considerable unlikeness in these 
subjects, but the meager data on any one of them suggested a single 
tabulation. We may also assume a like motive for successful study 
in the pursuit of each of them — their immediate applicability in 
business life. 

The median mark of the white pupils in the commercial branches 
for all terms is 70, of the colored pupils 62 ; and 22 per cent, of the 
colored pupils reach the median mark of the whites. 

The data given in Tables IX.-XXII. are summarized in Table 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 



37 



XXIII. It mil be seen that practically all median marks lie in the 
range of the 60 's, showing how the great body of pupils gravitate 
towards and a little above the passing mark. 



TABLES XX-XXII 

Median Marks in Other Subjects 





History 


Ancient Languages 


commercial 
Branches 


Measures 
Below 20 . . 


All 
White 



Terms 
Colored 



All 

White 



Terms 
Colored 



AU 
White 
1 


Terms 
Colored 




20-24 





1 





1 








25- 29 . . 





1 





1 








30- 34 . . 





2 


2 


2 








35- 39 . . 


1 





4 





2 


2 


40-44 


3 


4 


1 


3 





2 


45- 49 . . 


1 


7 


1 


5 


2 


1 


50- 54 . . 


3 


14 


2 


7 


3 


3 


55- 59 . . 


8 


15 


4 


9 


1 


13 


60- 64 . . 


22 


15 


16 


14 


6 


9 


65- 69 . . 


20 


12 


13 


5 


4 


9 


70- 74 . . 


16 


11 


9 


6 


7 


6 


75- 79 . . 


6 


3 


6 


2 


7 


2 


80-84 


4 


4 


1 


2 


6 


1 


85- 89 . . 


3 


3 


2 


2 


2 


1 


90-100 .. 








1 





2 


1 




SO 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 12. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in History for all 
Terms. (See Table XX.) 



10 



-~r-rt 




20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 

Fig. 13. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in Ancient Lan- 
guages for all Terms. (See Table XXI.) 



MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBICAN NEGBO 



20 30 40 50 60 70 80 80 

Fig. 14. Showing the Relative Attainment of the Two Groups in the Commercial 
Branches for all Terms. (See Table XXII.) 

It will be seen that the white pupils rank higher in every subject 
of study ; but that the difference in standing, though present in every 
instance, is numerically not very great. If the actual difference be- 
tween the two groups were too pronounced, it is evident that it would 
render impracticable all schemes of coeducation, which experience 
has shown not to be the case. 

The colored pupils make relatively the poorest showing in Eng- 
lish and the commercial branches; they make relatively the best 
showing in mathematics, especially arithmetic and algebra, and in the 
modern languages. Ancient languages, science, and history fall in 
between these in the order named. 

Why the colored pupils do poorest work in English and best in 
mathematics would probably require a specific psychological study 
for its satisfactory determination. One might easily have supposed 
the reverse to be true. In fact this seems to be the popular impres- 
sion. This view also has the sanction of scholars. Katzel states re- 
garding the negro that he "readily picks up foreign languages and 
learns to read in a short time." 1 Shaler also expresses this view 
of the negro, saying, 2 that he "has a remarkable aptitude for lan- 
guage. He quickly compassed the difficult English speech, and has 
effectively mastered it, so that he uses it with more ability than tire 
peasant class of our own race. Elsewhere he has done the like with 
all the tongues of Southern Europe." Shaler further states 3 that 
' ' with rare exceptions his ability in the field of mathematics is far less 
than that of the Aryan and the Semite. . . . The mathematics which 
require constructive ability of the higher kind, as algebra and geom- 
etry, are generally beyond the capacities of this people." And yet 
the results of our study apparently quite reverse this position. And 
the data presented seem to be sufficient to place this conclusion al- 
most beyond doubt. It may be that the negro, by apt imitation, is 
able to acquire easily a spoken language, while the written language, 

1 ' ' The History of Mankind, ' » Vol. II., p. 326. 
2 "The Neighbor," p. 153. 
* Idem., p. 151. 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 39 

requiring more technical detail and a more exact understanding of 
form and structure, is somewhat baffling to him. It is a common 
observation that negroes associated with whites learn to speak their 
language with considerable fluency, but at the same time with gross 
inaccuracies. With limited observation and inquiry, I have not 
been able to discover that this observation is in any degree true of 
the spoken or written discourse of colored high school pupils. 

It might be thought that poor culture in the homes of the colored 
pupils, where the parents have but a meager or no knowledge of the 
written language, and make but a very imperfect use of the spoken 
language, is largely responsible for the limited success of this group 
of pupils in the study of English in the high school. "While this no 
doubt has its influence, it does not, however, seem to be fundamental, 
unless we could show that the poor speech in the home is due wholly 
to some other cause than that of an inaptitude for language train- 
ing. As a matter of fact, the colored parent has probably had a 
better chance to learn the English language than the average white 
parent of the City of New York. Many pupils of the high schools 
being of foreign parentage do not hear English spoken in the home. 
And while members of colored homes are without books and without 
literary culture, we have no way of knowing that this is true to any 
greater degree of the homes of the colored pupils who come to the 
high school than of the homes of the whites. One might think that 
the taste of the colored pupils is more primitive, and that they do 
not consequently appreciate the refinements of English style. 
Whether anything like this might be true of high school English, we 
can not say. However it may be explained, it remains that the col- 
ored pupils do relatively very poor work in the English of the high 
school. 

The two groups are most nearly on a parity of attainment in the 
study of first term mathematics. There is only one point of differ- 
ence in the median marks, and 46 per cent, of the colored pupils 
reach the mark attained by 50 per cent, of the whites. Algebra 
seems, then, to be the subject in which the colored pupils are able to 
make the most favorable showing. Their relative standing in arith- 
metic is also high ; but in geometry it is decidedly poorer. Only 26 
per cent, of the colored pupils reach the mark in geometry attained 
by 50 per cent, of the whites. The modes of thought in geometry 
are evidently more difficult relatively for the colored pupils than are 
those of arithmetic and algebra. The observation has also been 
made that girls succeed relatively better with high school algebra 
than geometry, as compared with the work of boys. 

After comparative success in manipulating the complicated sym- 



40 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGEO 

bolism of arithmetic and algebra, we may wonder why the colored 
group does not attain a higher relative standing in the commercial 
branches. It has been seen that only 22 per cent, of the colored 
pupils reach the median mark of the whites in these branches — 
being the poorest relative attainment made with the exception of that 
in first term English. The manipulations of such a subject as book- 
keeping are of course quite complex, and may be of relatively greater 
difficulty for the colored group. It may be also that the business 
ideas and concepts of this group are less clearly defined and less 
fully developed, which, if a fact, might be attributed either to pres- 
ent social conditions or to differences in race experience, or both. 
Very likely, too, the practical value of such training appeals less 
strongly to the colored pupil, so that his interest and effort are, in 
consequence, less actively aroused. In modern language study it is 
found that the colored pupils meet with relatively high success. 
This is in accord with the observation often made of their aptitude 
for language. Oral discourse may also be emphasized more in the 
study of a foreign language than in the study of English, and in this 
the race has shown a capacity to excel. In first term work, they 
rank, in modern languages, second only to algebra; and all marks 
considered, it is here that their rank is highest. (See Table XXIV.) 
Perhaps also it is in a study of foreign languages that the two races 
are most nearly on an equal footing. In this field the work is almost 
equally new and strange to both. But even here the linguistic devel- 
opment of white pupils, as influenced by race heredity, ought to be 
somewhat more in their favor. 

In Latin and Greek, however, the standing of the colored group 
is again relatively poor. The reason may be found partly in the 
greater difficulty of the study of these languages, and partly in the 
social environment. These ancient tongues have so long been asso- 
ciated with learning and power both in church and state, that a sort 
of feeling of dignity and respect attaches to them that no doubt in- 
fluences white pupils more strongly than it does the colored. Also 
as a preparation for college, these languages may make a stronger 
appeal to the interest of the white pupils. 

In the sciences and history colored pupils meet, we might say, 
with about average success. The median mark in the sciences is the 
same as the median mark for all subjects; that in history is slightly 
higher. One might naturally have expected the colored pupils to 
have made a more favorable showing in history. It is quite common 
for writers on the negro race to express the view that colored pupils 
easily succeed with all subjects requiring memory. But their mem- 
ory is probably not so far in excess of other capacities as has been 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 41 

commonly supposed ; and history, as now taught, makes a much wider 
intellectual appeal than to mere rote memory. 

We have already endeavored to estimate the scholastic efficiency or 
ability of the white and the colored pupils by determining their aver- 
age standing in all school subjects. "We may further measure their 
relative scholastic efficiency by ascertaining what percentage the 
whole number of subjects passed by each group was of the whole 
number of subjects pursued. In other words, we may take the per- 
centage of promotions as a measure of the school efficiency of the 
pupils. This is determining efficiency in scholastic achievement by 
the ability of a pupil to make such a mark in class work and school 
examinations as to justify a teacher in the belief that the pupil has 
a sufficient knowledge of a subject to entitle him to promotion or 
graduation. As already pointed out, only first trials in a subject are 
considered. The results obtained upon this basis are shown in Table 
XXIII. 

TABLE XXHI 

Shotting Nuaibeb, of Subjects Pursued and Percentage of 

Failures by Terms and by Tears 





White Pupils 




Colored Pupils 










Percent- 






Percent- 


Relative 




No. 


No. 


age of 


No. 


No. 


age of 


Efficiency 


Intervals 


Subjects 


Failures 


Failures 


Subjects 


Failures 


Failures of Colored 


First term 


665 


148 


22 


662 


232 


35 


83 


Second term 


505 


130 


26 


488 


200 


41 


80 


First year 


1,170 


278 


24 


1,140 


432 


38 


82 


Third term 


405 


85 


21 


443 


210 


47 


67 


Fourth term 


296 


77 


26 


307 


150 


49 


69 


Second year 


701 


162 


23 


750 


360 


48 


67 


Fifth term 


243 


67 


27 


223 


113 


51 


62 


Sixth term 


181 


51 


28 


141 


65 


46 


75 


Third year 


424 


118 


28 


364 


178 


49 


71 


Seventh term 


95 


15 


15 


76 


27 


35 


76 


Eighth term 


43 


5 


12 


42 


6 


14 


97 


Fourth year 


138 


20 


14 


118 


33 


28 


84 


Totals 


2,433 


578 


24 


2,382 


1,003 


42 


76 



It will be seen that during the first year at high school a total 
of 1,170 subjects was pursued by the pupils of the white group, and 
that in 278 instances they failed of making the passing mark; that 
is, they failed in 21 per cent, of their studies. The corresponding 
figures for the colored pupils are 1,140 subjects, and 132 instances, or 
38 per cent., of failure. 

For the second year, the white pupils pursue a total of 701 sub- 
jects, and fail in 162 cases, making the percentage of failure 23. 



42 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGRO 

The colored pupils pursue 750 subjects and fail in 360 cases, making 
the percentage of failure 48. 

For the third year, the white group pursue a total of 424 subjects 
and fail in 118 cases, making the percentage of failure 28. The 
colored pupils pursue 364 subjects and fail in 178 cases, making the 
percentage of failure 49. 

In the fourth year, the white pupils pursue a total of 138 sub- 
jects and fail in 20 cases, making the percentage of failure 14; the 
colored pupils pursue 118 subjects and fail in 33 cases, making the 
percentage of failure 28. 

For the entire period of 4 years, the white pupils pursue a total 
of 2,433 subjects and fail in 578 cases, making the percentage of 
failure 24. The colored group pursue a total of 2,382 subjects and 
fail in 1,003 cases, making the percentage of failure 42. 

During the entire period, in other words, the white pupils passed 
in 76 per cent, of all subjects pursued on first trial; the colored 
pupils passed in 58 per cent, of all subjects on first trial. If we 
take the achievement of white pupils on first trial as a basis, it will 
be found that the achievement of the colored pupils is about 76 per 
cent, of it. That is, on the basis under consideration, the efficiency 
of colored pupils in the high school of the City of New York, is about 
% of that of the whites. 

A comparative study of the mental ability of white and colored 
pupils by the methods of mental tests has scarcely begun, so that 
we are unable to check the reliability of our results, except in a very 
general way, by measurements which have been thus derived. A re- 
port 3 of a study of the learning of white and colored delinquent girls 
recently made by Bird T. Baldwin tends, however, even to accentu- 
ate the difference in learning capacity between the two racial groups 
as compared with the results which we have obtained. Professor 
Baldwin's study was based upon experiments with a substitution 
test, which were completed by groups of white and colored girls rang- 
ing between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. Of the colored 
group he says : ' ' The work of these girls is less in amount, less neat r 
and less accurate. The marks are more irregular, and many pay 
little attention to errors." Quoting further: "In this type of learn- 
ing it is found that comparing the amount of work done by the thirty- 
seven white girls with the work done by thirty negroes who accom- 
plished more than 50 per cent, of correct results, it is evident 
that the negroes are decidedly inferior. The white girls made 72.3 
substitutions as a general average, the negroes 55.8. The negroes 
accomplished 62.4 per cent, as much work as the white girls, and 
made 245.3 per cent, as many errors." 

s See The Journal of Educational Psychology, June, 1913. 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 43 

These are about the only comparative results hitherto published 
of the mental capacity of two racial groups which have been obtained 
by means of mental tests. They correspond essentially with the re- 
sults which we have obtained by a comparison of school work as indi- 
cated by teachers ' marks. Estimates of racial ability made from obser- 
vation are usually indefinite in character, and afford little basis for 
comparison with the measured results which we have obtained except 
in their general tendency. Perhaps the most interesting estimate 
based upon observation is that of the great English student of hered- 
ity, Sir Francis Galton, who, by use of the law of deviation from an 
average, has roughly compared the worth of the negro race relative 
to the Anglo-Saxon. Of his method Galton says : " To save the read- 
er 's time and patience, I propose to act upon an assumption that 
would require a good deal of discussion to limit, and to which the 
reader may at first demur, but which can not lead to any error of 
importance in a rough provisional enquiry. . . . There is good 
reason to expect that the error introduced by the assumption can not 
sensibly affect the offhand results for which alone I propose to em- 
ploy it." 4 

Galton divides both races into sixteen grades of ability, eight 
falling above and eight below the racial mean, and assumes the in- 
terval of ability separating these grades to be equal in all cases. The 
individuals of both races are supposed to be distributed through 
the grades in accordance with the law of deviation from an average. 
Galton then considers the ablest representatives of the negro race, 
as Toussaint l'Ouverture, ranking as one in a million, and regards 
them as falling not less than two grades below the corresponding 
representatives of the Anglo-Saxon. Of men surpassing L'Ouve- 
ture's ability there are fifteen among a million of Anglo-Saxons. 
Similarly each grade of ability among the Anglo-Saxons is regarded 
as falling at least two intervals above the corresponding grade 
among the negroes. This distribution results in a much smaller 
degree of over-lapping in ability than that which was obtained by 
a comparison of school marks. Only 16 among a hundred negroes 
would rank in ability equal to or above the median of the Anglo- 
Saxons, as compared with 29 out of a hundred among the high school 
pupils of New York City. This discrepancy, however, may be largely 
explained by a consideration of the differences in the groups com- 
pared — the groups which we have studied being far more select and 
specialized by the operation of several obvious influences. Another 
slight source of error may be found in the assumption of equal vari- 
bility between the two races. Of this Galton himself remarks: "I 
4 "Hereditary Genius," p. 337. 



44 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 

know this can not be strictly true, for it would be in defiance of 
analogy if the variability of all races were precisely the same." It 
thus appears that these estimates of racial ability derived from ob- 
servation and from a comparison of school efficiency do not vary 
widely from each other. 

To summarize, the following are the leading results deduced from 
the data considered : 

The median age of white pupils at the time of entering high 
school in the City of New York is 14 years 6 months ; of colored 
pupils 15 years 1 month — a difference of 7 months. The average 
deviation for whites is 9 months; for colored, 15 months. Twenty- 
seven per cent, of the whites are as old as the median age of the 
colored or older. 

Colored pupils remain in school a greater length of time than do 
the whites. For the cases studied, the average time spent in high 
school for white pupils was 3.8 terms ; for colored, 4.5 terms. About 
28 per cent, of the whites attain the average time of attendance for 
the colored. 

Considering the entire scholastic record, the median mark of the 
150 white pupils is 66 ; of the 150 colored pupils, 62 ; a difference of 
4 per cent. The average deviation of white pupils is 7 ; of the colored 
6.5. Twenty-nine per cent, of the colored pupils reach or surpass the 
median mark of whites. 

TABLE XXIV 
Percentage of Colored Pupils Reaching the Median Mark of Whites 
Subjects. Per Cent. 

English — first term 22 

English — all terms 24 

Modern languages — first term 42 

Modern languages — all terms 33 

Mathematics — first term 46 

Mathematics — all terms 32 

Sciences — first term 39 

Sciences — all terms 29 

History — all terms 31 

Ancient languages — all terms 27 

Commercial branches — all terms 22 

Arithmetic — first term 39 

All subjects — all terms 29 

The white pupils have a higher average standing in all subjects. 
The results are summarized in Table XXIV. The percentage of 
colored pupils reaching the median mark of the whites in the several 
subjects is as follows : Modern languages, 33 ; mathematics, 32 ; his- 
tory, 31; the sciences, 29; Latin and Greek, 27; English, 24; the 
commercial subjects, 22; and all subjects together, 29. 



COMPARATIVE SCHOLASTIC EFFICIENCY 45 

The total number of subjects pursued by the white group was 
2,433; the total number of subjects passed on first trial was 1,855; 
the percentage of subjects passed being 76. The total number of 
subjects pursued by the colored groups was 2,382; the total num- 
ber of subjects passed on first trial was 1,379, the percentage 
of subjects passed being 58. Interpreting these figures as a 
measure of relative scholastic efficiency, the efficiency of colored 
pupils is 76 per cent, of that of the whites ; that is, the colored pupils 
are about % as efficient as the whites in the pursuit of high school 
studies. 



CHAPTER V 

The Educational, Significance of the Data 

The facts set forth in the preceding chapter are of great signifi- 
cance from the point of view of instruction and from that of educa- 
tional administration and expenditure. The problem of the back- 
ward pupil presents grave difficulties both in class-room instruction 
and in school organization. Also the expense to the community of 
schooling any pupil up to any definite standard of scholarship in- 
creases directly with retardation. The facts make it plain that the 
burden of education falls much more heavily upon those communities 
having a large proportion of colored population. 

It has been shown that the average of the white pupils in all 
subjects taught in the high schools of New York City is 66, and of 
colored pupils, 62. The average deviation of the white pupils was 7, 
and of colored, 6.5. If we assume the distribution of pupils by 
marks to be about that of the normal surface of frequency, we will 
have 25.28 per cent, of the white group between the passing mark 60 
and the average 66, and 9.73 per cent, of the colored group between 
the passing mark 60 and their average 62. That is, 75.28 per cent, 
of the white group are up to or above the passing mark, as compared 
with 59.73 per cent, of the colored group. According to these esti- 
mates about 75 out of 100 white pupils attain promotion as compared 
with 60 out of 100 colored. Retardation would thus be 25 per cent, 
and 40 per cent., respectively, for the white and colored groups. 

It is plain, then, that if an attempt were seriously made to bring 
the scholastic training of the colored pupils throughout the country 
up to the present standards of the schools, its accomplishment would 
require a considerably increased outlay both of time and of money. 
The expenditure under the most favorable circumstances would 
probably be on an average not less than a fourth or fifth greater per 
unit of colored population, — even if no allowance were made for 
diminishing educational returns, a factor which also would doubtless 
have to be taken into account. 

The figures of Table XXIII. indicate that the work grows some- 
what more difficult for the colored pupils as the high school course 
advances. The third year seems to increase in difficulty for the whites 
also. The percentages of failure for the successive years of the high 
school are as follows : first year, colored, 38, white, 24 ; second year, 

46 



EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TEE DATA ±1 

colored, 48, white, 23 ; third year, colored, 49, -white, 28 ; and fourth 
year, colored, 28, white, 14. For both groups the smallest percen- 
tage of failure is in the last year. This is no doubt due in part to a 
closer selection of pupils, and perhaps in a measure to the greater 
leniency of teachers in the final year. 

The reports of superintendents of numerous city schools in the 
various Southern States, where separate schools for the two races are 
maintained, go far towards establishing the proposition that the 
slower progress of colored pupils, which is clearly indicated in our 
tables, is of general occurrence. These reports show that the average 
age of the colored pupils of any grade is always considerably higher 
than the average age of white pupils of the same grade. They also 
show that the percentage of colored pupils is relatively greater than 
the white in the lower grades, and relatively less in the upper grades. 
Thus, in the first and second grades, the percentage of colored pupils 
is in excess of the white; in the third or fourth, it becomes about 
the same ; while in the higher grades the relative percentage of white 
pupils is always greater. 

TABLE XXV 

Fboh the Axxual Report of the Houston (Texas) Public Schools 

fob 1909-1910, p. 96 

Showing the Distribution of Pupils through the Grades by Per Cents. 

No. Whites Per Cent Whole Xo. Colored Per Cent. Whole 

First grade 1,528 18.0 1,131 31.7 

Second grade 1,314 15.5 756 21.2 

TMrd grade 1.317 15.6 542 15.0 

Fourth, grade 1,185 14.0 391 10.9 

Fifth grade 865 10.2 _ 299 8.0 

Sixth grade 750 9.0 201 5.6 

Seventh grade 559 6.6 106 2.9 

Eighth grade 479 5.6 75 2.1 

Xinth grade 207 2.4 31 .9 

Tenth grade 139 1.6 23 .6 

Eleventh grade 84 1.0 10 .3 

Totals 8,427 100.0 3,565 100.0 

A few tables are selected from city school reports as typical of 
these conditions. Table XXV., taken from the annual report of the 
Houston, Texas, public schools for the scholastic year 1909-1910, 
gives the distribution by grades of 8,427 white and 3,565 colored 
pupils. Nearly a third of all the colored pupils as compared with a 
fifth of the white are in the first grade. Sixty-two per cent, of the 
colored as compared with 50 per cent, of the white are found in the 
first three grades. The proportion of white to colored pupils in the 
high school grades is as three to one. 



48 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGBO 

Table XXVI., taken from the report of the Board of Education 
of Washington, D. C, for the year 1906-1907, shows the distribution 
of the pupils of the city schools for that year by grades. Nearly a 
fourth of the colored pupils are in the first grade as compared with 
a seventh of the whites. Fifty-one per cent, of the colored are 
found in the first three grades as compared with 37 per cent, of the 
whites. In round numbers, the distribution of the two groups 
through the city schools was as follows : Kindergarten, colored, 5 per 
cent., white, 4 per cent. ; primary grades, colored, 62 per cent., white, 
50 per cent. ; grammar school grades, colored, 26 per cent., white, 36 
per cent. ; secondary schools, colored 6, white 10 per cent. 

TABLE XXVI 

From the Annual Report of the Washington (D. C.) Public Schools 

for 1906-1907, P. 35 

Shoicing the Distribution of Pupils through the Grades by Per Cents. 

No Whites Per Cent. W.hole No. Colored Per Cent. Whole 

Kindergarten 1,453 4.11 942 5.42 

First grade 5,060 14.31 4,138 23.81 

Second grade 4,199 11.88 2,518 14.48 

Third grade 4,160 11.77 2,199 12.65 

Fourth grade 4,245 12.00 1,988 11.44 

Fifth grade 3,980 11.25 1,621 9.33 

Sixth grade 3,436 9.72 1,232 7.09 

Seventh grade 2,863 8.10 964 5.54 

Eighth grade 2,453 6.94 683 3.93 

High school 2,764 7.82 587 3.38 

Manual training high 612 1.73 418 2.40 

Normal school 131 .37 93 .53 

The report of the public schools of Memphis, Tennessee, for the 
scholastic year 1908-1909 gives the distribution of 9,226 white and 
5,301 colored pupils both by grades and by ages. The average ages of 
the white and the colored groups in the first grade are, respectively, 
7.4 and 8.2 years; in the second grade, 8.7 and 10.4 years; in the 
third grade, 10.0 and 11.6 years. The difference in average age is 
more than a year in each grade. The relative percentages of the 
entire groups which were in the different grades are for white and 
colored respectively : first grade, 25 per cent, and 44 per cent ; second 
grade, 11 per cent, and 17 per cent. ; third grade, 14 per cent, of 
each; fourth grade, 13 per cent, and 9 per cent. In the advanced 
grades the relative percentage of the white pupils predominates. 

These figures seem to be more or less typical of the educational 
situation. The relative percentage of colored pupils predominates 
in the lowest grades, becomes equal to that of the white pupils in the 



EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DATA 49 

third or fourth grade, and is relatively less in the more advanced 
grades. The condition is apparently of general occurrence so that 
inefficiency in the work of the colored schools seems everywhere prev- 
alent. This is shown both by the fact of the greater average age 
of the colored pupils, and by their greater relative percentage in 
the lower grades. 

TABLE XXVLT 

Coxdexsed from Mempbcis School Eeport FOR 1908-1909, P. 23 

Showing the Distribution of Pupils by Per Cents, and by Ages through the Grades 



No. 

First grade 2,261 

Second grade .... 1,056 

Third grade 1,258 

Fourth grade 1,167 

Fifth grade 838 

Sixth grade 816 

Seventh grade .... 627 

Eighth grade 477 

Freshman 4291 

Sophomore 170 [ 

Junior 91 f 

Senior 36 



White 






Colored 


1 
At. 


3 er Cent. 


Av. A?e 


No. 


Per Cent. 


Age 


25 


7.04 


2,328 


44 


8.2 


11 


8.7 


9,909 


17 


10.4 


14 


10.0 


776 


14 


11.6 


13 


11.1 


465 


9 


12.4 


9 


12.0 


288 


5 


13.3 


8 


12.8 


209 


4 


14.1 


7 


13.8 


134 


3 


14.9 


5 


14.6 


71 


1 


15.7 




ris.o 


68] 




ri6.o 


8 


J 15.5 
116.3 


=1 


3 


117.0 




[17.0 


32J 




[18.0 



Total 9,226 Total .. 5,301 

Also when the degree of mental development of pupils of nomi- 
nally the same school grade is tested, the white pupils are found to 
make a more favorable showing. Very little work, however, of this 
sort has hitherto been done. In a preliminary report 1 of a com- 
parative study by Miss Alice Strong of 119 white and 120 colored 
pupils in the public schools of Columbia, S. C, it was found by 
means of the Binet tests that, in their mental growth and develop- 
ment, 25.2 per cent, of the white and 60.8 per cent, of the colored 
were below age; 42.9 per cent, of the white and 30 per cent, of the 
colored were at age; and 28.6 per cent, of the white and 9.2 per cent, 
of the colored were above age. "From another point of view," the 
report says, "it appears that for the colored 60 per cent, of the tests 
are too difficult ; 20 per cent, too easy ; and 20 per cent, right. For 
the white 25.7 per cent, of the tests are too difficult; 25.7 per cent, 
too easy; and 48 per cent, right." 

When mental tests are thus applied to groups of pupils of the 
same grade, it appears that the white pupils have made more satisfac- 
tory attainments. "Whether measured by teachers' marks, or by 

1 Journal of Educational Psychology, June, 1913. 



50 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGEO 

mental tests, or by their distribution through the grades by ages or 
per cents., the relatively slow progress of the colored pupils seems to 
be the constant result. 

In part explanation of this situation may be adduced the fact that 
the colored schools are much inferior in organization, administration, 
and equipment. Teachers are poorly paid, are insufficient in num- 
bers, are not well trained for the sendee, and are lacking in many 
of the facilities for successful work. These are mere externals, how- 
ever, for which remedies may be easily provided. We are prone to 
attribute too large a part of our educational failure to their exist- 
ence, and are disappointed with our small improvement in results 
when they are removed. It has been shown that the external circum- 
stances play a relatively smaller part, and heredity a relatively 
greater part, in individual development and efficiency, than was for- 
merly supposed. Genius, mediocrity, imbecility, are fundamentally 
matters of birth, and not of education or training. Another great 
drawback to the teacher's work, it may here be pointed out, is that 
the social and economic ideals of the colored race are not such as to 
inspire effort and perseverance in the acquisition of knowledge. It 
would thus seem that the weight of both physical and social heredity 
falls heavily upon the teacher's hands. If under the most favorable 
circumstances, and with a relatively close selection of pupils, we meet, 
as our study has shown, with serious retardation in the education of 
the colored race, this fact ought to serve to show how great the 
burden is which rests upon many communities in training this ele- 
ment of their citizenship for social, civil, and industrial efficiency. 



CHAPTER VI 

Conclusion 

It has already been stated that one of the main objects of this 
study of racial groups of high school pupils was to compare the re- 
sults of mental work done under like circumstances of age, environ- 
ment, and previous training, to see what bearing they might have 
upon the question of racial mental differences. It is understood that 
such differences are differences of degree and not of kind. Mental 
differences between races, as between individuals, are quantitative, 
not qualitative. The fundamental likeness of the minds of all human 
groups is assumed. The unity of the human species is an accepted 
doctrine of modern anthropology. Everywhere man possesses the 
essentially human mental traits of abstract ideation, articulate speech, 
reasoning, imagination, and artistic creation. 

The human species is separated into several well-marked physical 
types, or races. Keane says : ' ' The four main divisions of man ki nd 
are thus seen to have been evolved independently in their several 
zones from four Pleistocene ancestral groups of somewhat uniform 
physical type, and all sprang from a common Pliocene prototype." 1 
"We assume then, in accordance with the teachings of present day 
anthropology, that all these types have descended from a common 
ancestral stock; and, in accordance with the laws of heredity, have 
departed from this ancestral stock more or less widely under the in- 
fluence of environment and the principles of survival. The essen- 
tially human instincts and capacities, acquired already by the com- 
mon progenitor, have been preserved in all the races, and constitute 
their specific mental likeness and unity. Such deviations in physical 
features and mental traits as have been brought about by the in- 
fluence of widely different geographic conditions, acting upon a 
modifiable heredity through geologic epochs of time, constitute their 
racial differences. Those groups most nearly allied in physical and 
mental traits are probably more recent differentiations of type, and 
may represent secondary, or even more diverse, branchings from the 
primitive parent stock. 

It is not possible that any one of the races has remained on the 
level of development of the original type. Evolution, adjustment, 
progress is the law of life of species. Races either developed or 

^'The World's People," p. 5. 

51 



52 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMEBIC AN NEGBO 

disappeared. Neither would it be safe to assume that different 
human groups have developed, under the stimulus of widely different 
environmental conditions, either in the same direction or at the same 
rate. So different are the conditions of contour, soil, and climate, 
and all the other local agencies that are known to affect the evolution 
of species and types that it would be contrary to all analogy were 
there not found to be considerable diversities in both the bodily and 
mental constitution of the races of men. Also it is entirely probable 
that each race has progressed farther than any other, from the 
original human prototype, along the lines of its own peculiar develop- 
ment. Racial diversities, rather than uniformities, are what the laws 
of heredity and evolution would naturally lead us to expect. 

Now if the races constitute a single zo-ological species, and have 
descended from a common progenitor in accordance with the same 
biological laws, the question arises as to whether or not they have 
arrived at the same plane of evolutionary bodily and mental fitness. 
In the processes of evolution that have brought about wide diver- 
gences in physical type, have such intellectual changes transpired as 
would justify the conclusion that the races are on mentally different 
levels of development? As Brinton puts the question, "Are there 
psychological distinctions separating the sub-species of man as clearly 
as those of his physical economy ? ' ' 2 

The relative mental capacity of races, is a question that has long 
been of absorbing interest. "Whether or not there is essential intel- 
lectual equality or inequality among them, is in reality a problem as 
yet unsolved. The present chapter will attempt a brief survey of the 
existing status of our knowledge upon this subject, with a statement 
of the view to which the data presented in this study is thought to 
point. 

There can be no doubt that the contributions which the races have 
made to human progress and culture have differed greatly. The his- 
tory of civilization is the history of relatively few peoples. But two 
very different factors may evidently have shared in effecting this 
result: environment and heredity. Has then this difference in the 
rate of social development been due to differences in external stimuli, 
or to differences in internal capacity for response? This is a ques- 
tion on which there is still a diversity of opinion. 

Plainly the external factor can not be overlooked in any satisfac- 
tory consideration of a people's growth. Nothing can be more cer- 
tain than that the progress which a nation makes in social evolution 
is due in a very large measure to its geographic environment. The 
broad and fertile valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile undoubt- 

2 "The Basis of Social Eelations," p. 157. 



CONCLUSION 53 

edly bore a close relation to the early rise and progress of civiliza- 
tion in those regions, and the rapid development of modern civiliza- 
tion has a geographic basis in soil, climate, and natural resources, 
in the absence of which it could not be explained. Certainly a suffi- 
cient reason for differences in the degree of progress made by dif- 
ferent human groups may often be found in geographic conditions, 
even were the capacity for inward response supposed to be the same. 
But the existence of this fact neither proves nor disproves that 
different races may be gifted differently with natural hereditary en- 
dowments. Under the influence of more or less favorable environ- 
ments, equal progress may have been made by races differing widely 
in capacity, and races not differing in capacity may have attained to 
very different degrees of civilization and culture. It is not safe 
to pass judgment upon the intellectual capacity or possibilities 
of a race or people merely from a consideration of the position which 
it has attained in the scale of social progress. 

To determine whether the races of men do actually differ in the 
possibilities of mental development which are transmitted to them 
by physical heredity is quite a complicated problem. It amounts to 
determining whether or not they have arrived at the same level, not 
on the scale of culture, but on the scale of organic and mental evolu- 
tion; and if they are on the same level of evolution, but on slightly 
different lines of development, whether or not their respective lines of 
development are equally favorable to efficiency and survival in the 
modern civilized world. 

It may here be said that the weight of authority among anthropol- 
ogists has hitherto been on the side of an inequality in the degree of 
evolution and in the inheritance of native capacity among the races. 
Even Waitz, who advocated so strongly the specific unity of the 
human mind said, "The proposition has been often defended, that 
there were no differences whatever in the mental endowment of 
races, that mental dispositions . . . are alike in all races, that their 
development depended entirely on surrounding nature and on educa- 
tion. . . . But the failure of attempts to educate the little children 
of some savages proves, at any rate, that there is no absolute equality 
of mental disposition either among peoples generally, or among indi- 
viduals of the same people." 3 Haddon says: "The three great 
groups of mankind — the white, yellow, and black races — all prob- 
ably are divergences from the same unknown ancestral stock. They 
have severally specialized along different lines of evolution, and dif- 
ferent traits of their organization have specialized in different degrees 
and in different directions. ... Of course there can be no doubt that 
'"Anthropology," Vol. I., p. 321. 



54 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 

on the whole, the white race has progressed beyond the black race. ' '* 
Authorities could easily be multiplied who regard racial differ- 
ences in mental traits as founded upon differences in organic or 
physiological evolution. Weighty authority may, however, be cited 
with quite a different view. Eatzel says : " It may be safely asserted 
that the study of comparative ethnology in recent years has tended 
to diminish the weight of traditionally-accepted views of anthropol- 
ogists as to racial distinctions. ... It is civilization alone which can 
draw any boundary between us and the 'natural' races. "We may 
declare in the most decided manner that the conception of 'natural' 
races involves nothing anthropological or physiological, but is purely 
one of ethnography and civilization. Natural races are races poor in 
culture. The gap which differences of civilization create between 
two groups of human beings is in truth quite independent of differ- 
ences in their mental endowments." 5 To the same effect Professor 
Thomas says : ' ' The fundamental explanation of the differences of the 
mental life of two groups is not that the capacity of the brain to do 
work is different, but that the attention is not in the two cases stim- 
ulated and engaged along the same lines. ... Of two groups having 
equal mental endowment, one group may outstrip the other by the 
mere dominance of incident. . . . The most significant fact for white 
development is the emergence among the Greeks of a number of 
eminent men who developed logic, the experimental method, and 
philosophic interest, and fixed in their group the habit of looking 
behind the incident for the general law. ' ' 6 

It is therefore plain that so far as scholarly authority is con- 
cerned, there are two very different views as to the real cause of the 
difference in progress made by races and peoples in different quarters 
of the globe. The older anthropologists, as well as many of those of 
the present day, hold to the view of the substantial inequality of 
races, as of individuals, in hereditary mental endowments; while 
many other serious thinkers of the day affirm, with apparently equal 
assurance, the essential equality of the races in hereditary mental 
gifts, holding that whatever differences are manifested in mental 
capacity are attributable solely to inequality of opportunity. 

Now there can be no doubt about the inequality of opportunity 
or about its marked effect upon the progress of individuals and peo- 
ples. But to establish this latter position, it would be necessary not 
only to show that it is sufficient to account for all the facts in the 
mental life of peoples, but also to give some positive evidence that 

4 ' < The Study of Man, ' ' p. xxii. 

8 "History of Mankind," Vol. I., pp. 18-19. 

6 "Source Book of Social Origins," p. 169 et seq. 



CONCLUSION 55 

mental inequality actually does not exist among them. This latter 
requirement is not met with. There is no proof, in the case of dif- 
ferences in the mental life of two human groups, that the capacity 
of their brains to do work is not different. True the situation may 
be explainable as due to the "dominance of incident." It is possi- 
ble that in many cases it is due to this cause alone — to the accidents 
of history and to favorable peculiarities in the physical and social 
environment — but the possibility of the operation of the other cause 
is ever present. We do not believe that any one would attempt to 
explain the sudden development of so much that is extraordinary in 
the science, art, and philosophy of the ancient Greeks without as- 
suming the appearance among them of a considerable number of 
persons of that high order of ability known as genius; and a genius 
is a person favored by heredity with a brain capable of doing extra- 
ordinary work. It is the internal factor of heredity, not the external 
factor of environment, that constitutes his distinguishing trait. Of 
course the external factor is not to be ignored. Incident, the favor- 
able combination of external circumstances, no doubt plays an im- 
portant role in all superior human achievements; but there is an 
internal factor, an inherent capability of response, without which 
these high endeavors do not admit of explanation. 

Also the fact that the attention of a people is directed and en- 
gaged along certain lines, while in a way due to accident, is not un- 
related to its inward capacity for response. The direction of a peo- 
ple's attention and effort is certainly as much a matter of internal 
organization as it is of external circumstance. That a habit of look- 
ing behind the incident for the general law may be ingrained in a 
people seems in itself significant for that people's inherent aptitude. 
History can not be completely explained in terms of geographic caus- 
ation. It is indeed the subjective factor — though it too has perhaps 
been often overemphasized — to which many writers have attributed 
the scientific ascendency and political dominance of a few peoples 
in the world. 

It seems quite clear, then, that the fact that different rates of 
human progress and different degrees of civilization may be ex- 
plained without the assumption of the mental inequality of differ- 
ent races and peoples does not prove such inequality not to exist. 
But we may fall into the opposite error of supposing that those 
peoples who lead in civilization and culture are for that reason 
peoples of superior mental abilities. This also does not of necessity 
follow. The fact of superior culture may be due solely to a difference 
in opportunity, and not at all to superior endowment. It is possible 
that a people may pass from barbarism to culture without increas- 
ing in the least its hereditary mental aptitude. 






56 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMEBICAN NEGBO 

What then are the facts on which the anthropologist has endeav- 
ored to base a distinction of races in mental ability? First of all, 
on physical features, and often too, on features that bear but the re- 
motest relation to the mental life. Several physical features of the 
negroid races have been pointed out as approximating them more 
nearly to the ape in both form and faculty. But the investigator has 
almost always approached this problem with a belief in the superior- 
ity of his own physical and mental type ; and any obvious departure 
from this type as a standard has been adjudged as evidence of infe- 
riority. The assumption here is essentially faulty. As Professor 
Boas puts it : "It seems reasonable to assume that differences in the 
form of the body must be accompanied by differences in function, 
and we may suppose that there may be certain peculiarities in the 
general mental tendencies of each race. Only we must guard against 
the inference that divergence from the European type is synonymous 
with inferiority. ' ' 7 

But the anthropologist has cited other facts which apparently 
have a more direct bearing upon the subject of mental inequality. 
The bra in- weight of the various races has been subjected to numerous 
measurements, with the result that important racial differences seem 
to appear. A relatively small brain-weight is found to be character- 
istic of the negroid races, and a relatively great weight of the white 
race, even when all other facts are taken into consideration. Now 
it has been found that while no certain correlation can be affirmed 
between the size of the brain and the degree of intelligence in 
individual cases, yet when large groups are considered some signifi- 
cance for intelligence does seem to attach to the matter of size. 
Imbecility and idiocy are associated with small brains, while the 
brain of eminent men has been shown to be considerably larger on 
an average than that of members in general of their group. No one 
fails to overlook the relative size of the brain in explaining man's 
superior place in the scale of intelligence ; and this difference in brain 
weight of different human varieties at least in itself suggests a prob- 
ability of mental inequality. 

It is believed, however, that a far more significant factor in de- 
termining the value of the brain as a psychic organ is its minute 
structure and organization. In the ascending scale of animal intel- 
ligence we find not only an increasing relative size of the nervous 
system, but also an ever increasing complexity in its organization. 
If there is a real difference in the mental capacity of races it is prob- 
ably to be explained in the main by differences of this character. 
That there are such structural differences has long been the teach- 

7 ' ' Anthropology, " p. 15. 



CONCLUSION 57 

ing of traditional science. Mandsley holds 8 that an examination of 
the different races of men shows a clear correspondence between 
intelligence and the development of the cerebral hemispheres, and 
that the intellectual difference between the negro and European is 
accompanied by differences in the extent of surface and in the struc- 
ture of the brain cortex. Quaterfages regards 9 it as a well-estab- 
lished fact that the number and complexity of cerebral convolutions 
are less in savage than in civilized races. 

But one can hardly escape the feeling that the conclusions of the 
older anthropologists were unconsciously influenced by the white 
man's prejudices, and one would gladly see the facts ascertained by 
the cruder means of their day retested by the more refined and pre- 
cise instruments and methods of the modern laboratory. One, there- 
fore, naturally looks with expectancy towards the results of two im- 
portant studies along this line recently pursued by trained scientists 
in the laboratory of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University. 
From a study of the brains of 103 negroes and 49 American whites, 
Eobert Bennett Bean reached the following conclusion : 10 The brain- 
weight of the negro is demonstrably smaller than that of the Cau- 
casian ; the size and shape of the front end of the brain are different 
in the two races, being smaller and more angular in the negro; the 
convolutions of the Caucasian brain are more elaborate, the fissures 
deeper, and the relative amount of white matter greater; the front 
end of the corpus callossum, made up of fibers which connect and 
associate the functions of the frontal lobes of the two hemispheres, is 
relatively greater in the Caucasian. 

A like study following close upon that of Dr. Bean was made by 
Franklin P. Mall. Professor Mall reaches no such positive conclu- 
sions and expresses no such confidence in his results as does Dr. Bean. 
He found that on the average the relative percentage of the frontal 
lobe is the same in both races, and says that, with our present crude 
methods, any claim that the negro brain is more simian or foetal 
than that of the white is entirely unwarranted. He finds that no 
necessary connection has been established between high intelligence 
and the brain's richness in gyri and sulci, and doubts our ability, 
with the methods and means at our disposal, to find any anatomical 
basis for great mental ability. He says : "For the present the crude- 
ness of our method will not permit us to determine anatomical char- 
acters due to race, sex or genius and which if they exist are com- 
pletely masked by the large number of marked individual varia- 

8 "The Physiology of the Mind," Ch. II. 

9 "The Human Species," p. 406. 

10 See Century, September, 1906. 



58 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGBO 

tions. . . . Arguments for differences due to race, sex and genius 
will henceforward need to be based upon new data, really scientific- 
ally treated and not of the older statements." 11 

This latter view brings into question, and no doubt deservedly, the 
accuracy and correctness of many of the conclusions of the older 
physiologists and anthropologists regarding anatomical differences 
between races. Whether the older views are entirely without value, 
however, must naturally remain for the present an open question. 
The cerebral differences between negroes and whites in the cases 
studied at Johns Hopkins have no doubt been greatly obscured by the 
fact of race mixture — the negro being a mixed and not a pure type — 
and by the fact of wide variation within both races, necessarily re- 
sulting in considerable overlapping between them ; but it is also true 
no doubt that these differences have been greatly exaggerated in the 
past. That such differences, however, which have been so often 
asserted and reiterated by numerous investigators should be abso- 
lutely without foundation seems hardly credible. 

Another important order of facts, which appears to have a sig- 
nificant bearing upon the subject of racial mental differences, is 
found in connection with the growth and maturing of individuals 
of different races. Early maturity is known to be related to climate, 
but it seems also to be related to race. Deniker 12 says that there is 
abundant evidence that negroes attain their maximum height be- 
tween eighteen and twenty-one, while men of the white race have 
scarcely attained the limit of their stature at twenty-three. The 
negro would thus appear to arrive at bodily maturity two or more 
years earlier than the white. This fact of earlier maturity seems to 
apply with special reference to the cranium. The sutures of the 
skull are simpler in the negroid races, and are obliterated by the 
growing together of the bones earlier than is the case with the Euro- 
pean. This premature formation of a solid and compact wall about 
the brain has been held by anthropologists to affect its growth and 
to afford some explanation of its smaller size in the negroid races. It 
is further pointed out by anthropologists that the anterior sutures of 
the skull are first to close in the negroid races, a condition the reverse 
of what obtains in Europeans. If this be true, the front portion 
of the brain, which is thought to be concerned with the higher mental 
functions, would appear to be the part whose expansion and devel- 
opment are most affected by this early solidification of the cranium. 
The skull of the negro, like that of many European whites, is doli- 
cocephalic; but the lengthening is said to be occipital, rather than 

11 The American Journal of Anatomy, Vol. IX., No. I., p. 32. 
""Eaces of Men," p. 107. 



CONCLUSION 59 

frontal, "indicating a preponderance of the lower mental powers." 13 
Ratzel, describing the head of the negro, says : ' ' The greatest breadth 
is to the back, so that seen from above it is egg-shaped, with the 
small end to the front. The forehead is often well arched but re- 
treating, so that the broad brow of the thinker is impossible." 14 

Apparently correlated with these facts of physiological growth 
are certain important observations on the education of the children 
of different races. Tylor says: "The account generally given by 
European teachers who have the children of lower races in their 
schools is that though they often learn as well as white children up 
to about 12 years old, they then fall off, and are left behind by chil- 
dren of the ruling race. ' ' 15 Describing the psychological characteris- 
tics of African natives in the Banana zone, Dowd says : ' ' The negro 
brain develops more rapidly and matures earlier in this, than in any 
other zone, and certainly earlier than the brain of the white man 
anywhere . . . The children of this zone, as of lower races generally, 
are remarkably precocious and when taught in school by the side of 
white children, often surpass them up to the age of puberty. At 
this period the negro . . . finds it difficult to keep up interest in lines 
of study which require the inhibition of other interests. . . . Waitz 
thinks that this arrest of mental growth is due to the climate and not 
to race characteristics, since the same phenomenon is observed among 
the Nubians, Egyptians, and Sandwich Islanders. The reply to such 
argument is that the climate has produced the race characteristic. ' ' 16 

Observations of this character are widely scattered through both 
popular and scientific literature. The children of all alien peoples, 
it is claimed, often show a capacity to assimilate European ideas 
quite equal to that of children of European parentage; but on arriv- 
ing at the pubertal stage, their progress as often seems to be inter- 
rupted and they fall thereafter behind their white competitors, who 
at this period of life experience a great expansion and development 
of their mental powers. 

The foregoing statements regarding the physiological growth 
and maturity of individuals of different races will doubtless have to 
be subjected to the more rigid tests of present-day scientific methods 
before it can be known just what measure of truth and error they 
contain. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that they are not 
without some basis in fact. It must be noted, however, that so far 
as school reports bear on the matter, there is no indication of any 

^Brinton, "Baces and Peoples," p. 21. 
14 "History of Mankind," Vol. II., p. 317. 
15 ' ' Anthropology, ' ' p. 74. 
18 "The Negro Eaces," Vol. I., p. 360. 



60 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGBO 

period during which the progress of colored pupils in American 
schools equals or surpasses that of the whites. The contrary seems 
to be true. The colored pupils are shown to do relatively poorer 
work in all grades of the school course. 

Also in themselves, and apart from any other considerations, we 
might not be able to state the bearing of the foregoing observations 
on physical and mental development upon the question of racial 
mental differences. Professor Boas thinks that even a shorter period 
of reaching maturity as in the case of the negro or other races may 
be without significance. He says: "We have not even evidence that 
would prove that a shorter period of development must be unfavor- 
able in its results." 17 But this is contrary to our current scientific 
and educational doctrine regarding human educability and the 
lengthened period of infancy and youth. Oppenheim states that 
"the higher the organism the longer does it require to attain a full 
development of its capabilities." 18 The importance of the length- 
ened period of infancy in human and animal evolution, making pos- 
sible a period of learning and of profiting from individual expe- 
rience, is a fully recognized biological principle. Time is a funda- 
mental requisite in the development of any of the higher forms of 
life— on the physiological side, for the maturing of a complex but 
highly plastic neuro-muscular organism, and on the mental side, for 
the assimilation of a knowledge of the complicated details of the 
environment to which it must react. Certainly the burden of proof 
ought to be upon those who make the contrary contention, and the 
evidence must show that the shorter period of attaining to physiolog- 
ical maturity in a race is not in any way unfavorable in its results. 
Donaldson, speaking of the different ages in individuals and classes 
at which the brain ceases to grow, expresses the opinion that "we 
might fairly expect that it would be continued for the longest time 
in those most favored." 19 He also thinks that the investigations of 
Venn on the cranial growth of Cambridge students point in this 
direction. A longer period of attaining maturity would seem to 
mean a longer period of plasticity and educability. It would seem 
to indicate in both individuals and races a capacity for adaptation 
to a higher and more complex environment. 

Of two races, differing materially in the period of growth, it 
would seem natural to infer that the one whose growth continued 
longest would be capable of a higher and wider mental adjustment, 
and would possess greater possibilities of advancement and culture. 

1T "The Mind of Primitive Man," p. 269. 
18 "The Development of the Child," p. 207. 
""Growth of the Brain," p. 111. 



CONCLUSION 61 

The opinions expressed in connection with attempts to educate alien 
races tend to confirm this view. Though based upon observation, 
these opinions, it would seem, can not be wholly without validity. 
Up to the age of puberty, the progress made by different races is 
reported to be largely the same. If there is at this point a falling 
off in the capacity of certain races in mental ability, we should ex- 
pect to find it correlated with some sort of physiological change. 
Donaldson says: "It is to be anticipated that one great difference 
in races will be found to lie in the extent of growth and organization 
in the nervous system after birth, and especially after puberty. 
Should it turn out on further examination that some of the lower 
races lose their capacity for later training after adolescence, we 
should look with interest for the changes in the cerebral cortex in 
order to determine whether growth there practically . ceased at 
puberty. ' ' 20 

Though our knowledge of cerebral anatomy is yet far from a 
solution of so refined a problem as this, still considerable progress in 
this direction is being made. "Kaes believes that in the second and 
third association layers of Meynert he has found the part of the 
brain in which, during the progress of civilization, improvement espe- 
cially occurred. It is certainly suggestive that the areas which he 
thinks are preeminently the region of race cerebration coincide with 
those in which he also seems to have discovered a new growth of asso- 
ciation fibers, beginning in civilized boys and girls at about eighteen 
years of age. Both Kaes and Vulpius agree that these same second 
and third layers, which the former is convinced are deficient among 
primitive peoples in association fibers, are undeveloped in children." 21 
Observations of this sort regarding cranial growth and structure, 
if verified, would afford a physiological basis and explanation for the 
great expansion of mental powers in white children during the adol- 
escent period, and for the cessation of mental development said to be 
met with in certain other races. From the point of view of evolu- 
tion, such differences are not at all unexpected. Although the races 
are supposedly descended from a common progenitor, their physical 
traits have been so profoundly modified by the action of the environ- 
ment and of heredity that the growth and development of so impor- 
tant an organ as the brain could hardly have escaped their trans- 
forming influence. 22 In fact it is the nervous system that must have 
undergone the most significant changes during the period of purely 
human evolution. For evolution in man has been characterized by 

20 ' ' The Growth of the Brain, ' ' p. 349. 

21 Swift, "Mind in the Making," p. 221. 

22 See Morris, ' ' Man and His Ancestor, " Ch. X. 



62 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGBO 

mental rather than by physical adjustment, and real advance has 
been for the most part along the line of perfecting the brain as an 
organ of thought. As the higher mental functions were man's latest 
acquisitions, it naturally follows that the final steps in his organic 
evolution were the growth and development of those finer neural 
processes and structures on which these mental functions depend. 
As the several races developed separately under the influence of 
widely different environments, it would be miraculous to expect their 
mental or physical evolution to be precisely the same. If different 
environments made different demands upon the intelligence of the 
inhabitants to meet the conditions of existence — and no other assump- 
tion seems reasonable — then peoples with different orders of intelli- 
gence unavoidably arose. Not only then does it seem admissible to 
assume the existence of mental inequality between the races to ac- 
count for various facts in our human relationships, but it would 
seem that apriori considerations, in view of our knowledge of human 
evolution, would make no other assumption tenable. Moreover it is 
naturally to be expected that when our methods and tests are suffi- 
ciently refined to enable us to discover the minutest differences, it 
will be found that it is in these higher and more recently acquired 
mental capacities that races will most likely exhibit the greatest 
diversities. 

But just what the mental differences between races are can be 
ultimately determined only by some appropriate means of accurately 
measuring mental functions. Some objective and reliable way of 
making mental measurements must first be found. Until recently 
our knowledge of racial mental differences was based either upon 
mere observations of the behavior of individuals, or upon a compara- 
tive study of their relative achievements in the various fields of 
human activity. But judgments from mere impressions are inad- 
equate to the demands of science, and are often found to be entirely 
erroneous. Keal progress can be made in this field only by a direct 
application of psychological tests or some other method of actually 
measuring mental phenomena. Quantitative studies of mental proc- 
esses have been actively pursued since the days of Fechner and 
Helmholz, and their methods have been applied in a few important 
instances to a comparative study of the minds of races. 

The most noteworthy movement of this sort was the Cambridge 
Anthropological Expedition made in 1891 for the purpose of study- 
ing by the methods of experimental psychology the mental charac- 
teristics of the natives of the Torres Straits and the Fly River district 
of British New Guinea. This part of the work of the expedition 
was in the hands of three trained psychologists : W. H. R. Rivers, C. 



CONCLUSION 63 

S. Myers, and "W. McDougall. Various experiments and measure- 
ments were made on vision, hearing, smell, taste, tactile acuity, the 
sensibility to pain, motor speed and accuracy, mental fatigue, estima- 
tions of time intervals, memory, etc. The results of this work have 
served to dispel many long-standing misconceptions regarding the 
sense acuity of savage peoples. The general conclusion derived from 
experiment is "that the visual acuity of savage and half- civilized 
peoples, though superior to that of the normal European, is not so 
in any marked degree." 23 Myers says: "The tales which have so 
frequently been told by travellers about the marvellous acuity of 
vision among primitive peoples unquestionably depend, not on a 
vastly superior visual acuity but on the power of interpreting signs 
which are meaningless to the European and hence escape his notice. 
For when the E-test ... is applied to primitive folk, the results 
show a visual acuity which is not very different from, though per- 
haps on the whole slightly superior to, the acuity of Europeans liv- 
ing a corresponding out-of-door life. . . . Now and again individuals 
have been examined whose acuity exceeds four times the so-called 
normal, and it may be that such cases are somewhat commoner 
among primitive than among civilized peoples." 24 

The tests for color vision show certain important differences. 25 
It was found that the order of sensitivity to different colors is differ- 
ent for the English and the Murray Islanders. Greater variation is 
noted among the English. Also the ordinary form of color-blindness, 
in which red and green are confused, does not exist or is very rare 
among the Murray Islanders, — a fact which holds true of many other- 
primitive peoples. 

In auditory acuity the results were different from what tradi- 
tional accounts of the keen sense of hearing among savage peoples 
would lead us to expect. From the measurements made, "one is 
forced to conclude that the general auditory acuity of the islanders 
of the Torres Straits is inferior to that of Europeans." 26 

The comparative study of tactile acuity and sensitivity to pain 
show also important differences. "The figures indicate that in the 
skin areas tested the Murray Islanders have a threshold of tactile dis- 
crimination of which the value, in terms of distance of two points 
touched, is just about one half that of Englishmen, or we may say 
in other words, that their power of tactile discrimination is about 

23 W. H. B. Elvers, Export of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition 
Vol. II., p. 42. 

24 ' ' Introduction to Experimental Psychology, ' ' p. 94. 

25 Beports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, Vol. II., p. 70 et seq 

26 Ibid., p. 148. 



64 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMERICAN NEGBO 

double that of Englishmen." 27 On sensitivity to pain, the Report 
reads as follows : ' ' Comparing Murray men with Englishmen, we see 
that while their average threshold of tactile discrimination is only 
about half as high, their average threshold for skin-pain (produced 
by pressure) is nearly double that of Englishmen; or expressing the 
difference in other words and more loosely, we may say of these 
Murray men that their sense of touch is twice as delicate as that of 
Englishmen, while their susceptibility to pain is hardly half as 
great. ' ' 28 Other experiments tend to corroborate these results. 

There seems therefore to be reasonable experimental evidence 
that primitive peoples are superior to civilized peoples in tactile, 
and inferior to them in pain, sensitivity. Primitive man seems also 
to be superior in his capacity to discriminate lifted weights. Com- 
menting on these facts Myers says: "There is no reason to suppose 
that primitive man has had more experience in discriminating 
touches and weights; quite the contrary is probably true. We must 
be content at present merely with stating the results without ven- 
turing on an explanation of them. ' ' 29 

Another important experimental study of several different racial 
groups was made by Professor R. S. Woodworth at the St. Louis 
Exposition in 1904. No published report of his work has appeared, 
but a summary of his results and conclusions were given in an 
address before the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science at its meeting at Boston in December, 1909. This address 
was published in Science, February, 1910, under the title of "Racial 
Differences in Mental Traits." The discussion is characterized 
throughout by valuable observations on both methods and results. 

In tests on vision, Professor Woodworth found that the Indians and 
"Filipinos took the highest rank, from 65 to 75 per cent, of them ex- 
celling the average of the whites. He says: "We may perhaps con- 
> elude that eyesight is a function which varies somewhat in efficiency 
■with differences of race, though with much overlapping." The 
whites were found superior in hearing, which is regarded as probably 
due largely to the training and hygienic influence of civilized life. 
So far as tests have been made, they seem to indicate that the acuity 
of smell is about the same for all races. 

He reports that experiments on the pain-sense of Indians, Fili- 
pinos, Africans and Ainu, made by himself and Dr. Bruner, are in 
accord with the results of McDougall and Myers. He shows, how- 
ever, that some doubt attaches to these measurements. To test sen- 

"Ibid., p. 192. 
28 Ibid., p. 195. 
29 " Introduction to Experimental Psychology," p. 102. 



CONCLUSION 65 

sitivity to pain a gradually increasing pressure is applied to the skin 
and the subject tested notes at just what point the sense of pain 
arises. Professor Wood worth thinks that the fact of incipient pain 
was likely judged differently by different peoples. He says : ' ' Most 
whites, under the condition of the test, are satisfied with slight dis- 
comfort, while my impression in watching the Indians was that they 
were waiting to be really hurt. The racial difference would accord- 
ingly be one in the conception of pain or the understanding of the 
test, rather than in the pain sense. ' ' 

Bearing on color vision, he says: "We were able to try on repre- 
sentatives of a number of races a difficult matching test . . . with the 
result that all other races were inferior to the whites in their general 
success at color matching. ' ' And on the speed of simple motor per- 
formances: "The familiar tapping-test, which measures the rate at 
which the brain can at will discharge a series of impulses to the same 
muscle, was tried on a wide variety of folk without disclosing marked 
differences between groups. The differences were somewhat greater 
when the movement, besides being rapid, had to be accurate in aim. 
The Eskimos excelled all others in this latter test, while the poorest 
record was made by the Patagonians and the Cocopa Indians. The 
Filipinos seemed undeniably superior to the whites in this test, 
though, of course, with plenty of overlapping." Eighthandedness 
proved to be about the same for all races. 

Professor Woodworth reaches the conclusion that "We are prob- 
ably justified in inferring from the results cited that the sensory and 
motor processes, and the elementary brain activities, though differing 
in degree from one individual to another, are about the same from 
one race to another." 

Of greater interest, however, are his efforts to measure the higher 
mental processes. He says: "A good test for intelligence would be 
much appreciated by the comparative psychologist, since in spite of 
equal standing in such rudimentary matters as the senses and bodily 
movement, attention, and the simpler sorts of judgment, it might 
still be that great differences in mental efficiency existed between 
different groups of men. Probably no single test could do justice to 
so complex a trait as intelligence. Two important features of in- 
telligent action are quickness in seizing the key to a novel situation 
and firmness in limiting activity to the right direction, and suppress- 
ing acts which are obviously useless for the purpose in hand. A 
simple test which calls for these qualities is the so-called 'form test' 
. . . This test was tried on representatives of several different races, 
and considerable differences appeared. As between whites, Indians, 
Eskimos, Ainu, Filipinos and Singhalese, the average differences 



66 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGBO 

were small, and much overlapping occurred. As between these 
groups, however, and the Igorot and Negrito from the Philippines 
and a few reputed Pygmies from the Congo, the average differences 
were great and the overlapping was small. Another rather similar 
test for intelligence, which was tried on some of these groups, gave 
them the same relative rank. The results of the test agreed closely 
with the general impressions left on the minds of the experimenters 
by considerable association with the people tested. And finally the 
relative size of the cranium, as indicated, roughly, by the product 
of its three external dimensions, agreed closely in these groups with 
their appearance of intelligence, and with their standing in the form 
test. If the results could be taken at their face value, they would 
indicate differences of intelligence between races, giving such groups 
as the Pygmy and Negrito a low station as compared with the most 
of mankind." 

"While Professor Woodworth inclines to the view that in sense 
acuity, motor activity, and the simpler mental process, the races are 
practically on the same footing, his tests, so far as they go, seem to 
indicate wider differences in general intelligence and the higher 
mental processes. They apparently separate the races into two 
general classes of ability, with small average differences and much 
overlapping between the various races of each class, but with large 
average differences and little overlapping between the races belong- 
ing to the two different classes. Now it is entirely probable, if tests 
could be sufficiently refined and graduated, that we should be able, 
by their use, to arrange all the races in a series of relative mental 
ability as indicated by the tests. If wide mental differences are 
found to exist between some races, we may all the more readily 
anticipate that at least small differences will be found to exist 
between others. On purely hypothetical grounds then, we would 
be led to believe in the possibility of arranging all the races in a 
series according to relative mental ability; and the facts, so far as 
they are known, tend to establish this hypothesis. The measurements 
of mental functions that have hitherto been made have tended to 
prove the existence of racial differences and not of racial identities. 
The differences that have already been obtained are greater than 
could reasonably be attributed to errors of accident or the crude- 
ness of methods. 

In accord with the foregoing facts and theories are the data that 
have been presented in this study. The two racial groups considered 
showed mental differences that were important and constant. In 
every subject of study the white group attained a higher average of 
scholarship. In every year of school work, the white group passed 



CONCLUSION 67 

in a much larger percentage of studies. The colored group is always 
more advanced in age than the white group of corresponding grade. 
The colored group require from a term to a year longer to com- 
plete the grammar school course than do the whites. All these im- 
portant facts point in the direction of a difference in race psychology. 

Now, if we admit that white pupils on the whole surpass colored 
pupils in school ability, we may well ask whether this is due to 
causes that are accidental, temporary and removable, or to causes 
that are fundamental and ineradicable In other words, is this dif- 
ference a matter of opportunity, or of heredity. The answer may 
not be certainly known. But in as much as everything in the power 
of educator, philanthropist, and law giver has been done for the 
equalization of opportunity, it is hard to escape the conclusion that 
the fundamental explanation of the difference in scholastic standing 
is to be found mainly in the factor of race heredity. It is due to a 
real difference in the general mental equipment of the two races — 
a difference that has been brought about through physiological and 
mental evolution, and which can never be equalized by processes of 
education and training. We do not hesitate, however, to record the 
opinion that racial differences are in reality much smaller than tra- 
ditional anthropology, as well as popular opinion, would lead us to 
believe. Between the white race and the colored race as found in the 
northern cities of the United States the overlapping is pronounced, 
and the difference between their average standing in mental work 
is not very great. Thomas Jefferson's observation that a negro 
"Could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the 
investigations of Euclid," 30 is certainly incorrect, if applied to the 
group here studied. If the work of all the colored pupils in our 
high schools were distributed with that of the whites, it would give us 
a distribution practically the same as that of the whites alone. The 
curve of distribution would be unimodal and of the same general 
form, but the median mark would be somewhat lowered. The fact 
that the coeducation of the races is possible and practicable is in 
itself conclusive evidence that the distribution of abilities among 
the two races is very largely the same. 

But another factor which may be of greater significance for the 
social progress and intellectual capabilities of a race than its average 
standing in any or all sorts of mental work is its intellectual variabil- 
ity. The capacity of a race for independent progress depends in a 
very large measure upon its capacity to produce in considerable 
numbers men of very high ability. It is the man of genius upon 
whom social progress has ever depended. Advancement in civiliza- 

30 "Notes on the State of Virginia," p. 179. 



68 MENTAL CAPACITY OF TEE AMEBIC AN NEGBO 

tion has always been a matter of discovery and invention by the few, 
and of assimilation and appropriation by the many. Now the 
greater the inherent variability of a race in mental qualities, the 
greater will be its chances of producing men of that order of ability 
ranked as genius. Hence it follows that the capabilities of a race 
are to be judged less by the average ability of its members than by 
the limits of its hereditary variation from this average, and the con- 
sequent number of its men of high ability. 

Though very little is as yet definitely known about the variability 
of races, there is some evidence that the European white is more 
variable than the negro, and that civilized peoples are more vari- 
able than primitive peoples. Also, as between the sexes, that man 
is more variable than woman. If this may be assumed as a biological 
fact, it will afford something of a scientific explanation of the rare- 
ness of real genius both in the negro race and among the women of 
European nations. Dr. C. S. Myers, in discussing the subject of 
differences on racial and sexual variability, makes the following 
important observations: "A civilized community may not differ 
much from a primitive one in the mean or average of a given char- 
acter, but the extreme deviations which it shows from that mean will 
be more numerous and more pronounced. . . . 

" Similar features undoubtedly meet us in the study of sexual 
differences. The average results of various tests of mental ability 
applied to men and women, are not, on the whole, very different for 
the two sexes, but the men always show considerably greater individ- 
ual variation than the women. . . . 

"For aught we know to the contrary the essential functions of 
womanhood may be the determinants not only of their special sexual 
physical features but also of greater uniformity of mental character. 
So, too, the particular environment in which the color and physique 
of the negro have been evolved may have induced a still more uni- 
form mediocrity of mental ability. . . . Certainly there is not an 
instance of first-class musical genius . . . among European women, 
despite centuries of opportunity. And so, too, there is not an in- 
stance of first-class genius in a pure-blooded American negro, despite 
the numbers of them who receive a university training in the United 
States." 31 

Discussing the subject of difference in sexual variability, Pro- 
fessor Thorndike says: "Such a difference does exist in the case of 
boys and girls, the latter being the less variable. . . . The difference 
is of much theoretical importance to general psychology but has 
little bearing on the work of education in the lower grades. It does 

* x " Papers on Inter-Racial Problems," pp. 76-77. 



CONCLUSION 69 

account for the fact that the most striking and extreme cases of 
any mental trait are much more often found in boys than in girls. ' ' 32 

Also Dr. Hrdlicka, in an anthropological study of a large number 
of white and colored children of both sexes, says : "Ina general way 
it can be stated that the white children present more diversity, the 
negro children more uniformity, in all their normal physical char- 
acters. This becomes gradually more marked as the age of the chil- 
dren advances. ' ' 33 Although this latter observation refers to physical 
traits only, we may readily assume that this same racial difference 
in variability may also extend to mental traits. 

If, then, there are wider variations in intellectual endowments 
from the mean or average ability in some one race than in others, 
that race would naturally have an advantage in the way of producing 
men of high ability, and would therefore be more capable of making 
great social progress, and would moreover in this sense be a supe- 
rior race. So far as the facts are known, this seems to be the case as 
applied to the negro and white races. 

In our own study of the two groups of high school pupils, how- 
ever, the fact of greater racial mental variability is not at all pro- 
nounced, though the whites were slightly more variable. The aver- 
age deviation of the white group from their mean scholastic attain- 
ment was 7, while that of the colored group was 6.5. In other 
words the colored group was about 93 per cent, as variable as the 
white group. 34 It may be noted, however, that school life and activ- 
ities may offer only a narrow field for testing the hereditary varia- 
bility of groups ; also that the colored group which we have studied 
is of mixed racial heredity, and is probably more variable on this 
account. The same sort of study of two groups of pure racial type 
would probably show a greater difference in variability. 

From all the observations and measurements that have come under 
consideration we arrive at the conclusion that as regards the mental 
heredity of the negro and white races as represented in our Northern 

32 "Notes on Child Study," p. 168. 

33 "Anthropological Study of One Thousand White and Colored Children," 
p. 59. 

34 Probably, however, some allowance should be made for the fact that the 
average for the white group was higher than for the colored. If we adopt Pear- 
son 's coefficient of variation, and divide the average deviation of each group by 
the group average before comparing the variabilities of the two groups, we reach 
the conclusion that the colored group is 99 per cent, as variable as the white. If, 
however, we adopt Thorndike's suggestion that the proper allowance is ob- 
tained by dividing the average deviation by the square root of the group average, 
we then reach the result that the colored group is 96 per cent, as variable as the 
white. 



70 MENTAL CAPACITY OF THE AMERICAN NEGBO 

States, the average mental ability of the white race, so far as this: 
ability is exercised in school studies, is higher, but not a great deal 
higher, than that of the colored race ; and that as regards the matter 
of mental variability, the white race is more variable, but not a great 
deal more variable, than is the negro race. But the importance of 
small differences in hereditary traits is not to be overlooked. In the 
struggle for supremacy or survival, these small differences may be, 
and no doubt often are, the determining factor. The matter of 
greater variability is of chief advantage to the race because of its 
furnishing a basis for a wider departure from the average off- 
spring, and consequently for the production of a greater number of 
highly gifted individuals. It is by the production of these highly 
gifted individuals that social progress and racial supremacy are 
assured. 

The foregoing conclusions seem clearly deducible from the data 
compiled and presented.* They are also in accord, except in their 
moderation, with the teachings of history and anthropology, and 
with the views commonly accepted among those who have made ex- 
tensive observations upon the races. There seem to be no statistical 
grounds for holding to the view of substantial racial mental equality. 
Our data point clearly to a measurable degree of mental difference. 
And this is believed to be the view that will be ultimately gained 
from a purely scientific study of the question, stripped, on the one 
hand, of philanthropic considerations, and, on the other, of racial 
bias. 



VITA 

Born March 1, 1871, near Prestonburg, Ky. Degree of A.B. 
1894, Lebanon University, Lebanon, Ohio. Degree of Pd.D. 1903, 
New York University. Degree of A.M. 1904, New York University. 



71 



LBJe-'M 



